All Grown Up

"Time sure goes by fast, doesn't it?" We've all said it at one point. Whether it be your neighbor, your cousin, or a little kid at the grocery store, there is one point in every kids' childhood where they grow up. This seemed to be a big theme in the book "To Kill a Mockingbird". The two main characters in the book named Jem and Dill grew up a lot, and so did the town of Maycomb itself. Scout's older brother Jem started out as a playful boy in the beginning of "To Kill a Mockingbird". Jem used to include Scout in everything and play in the yard with her. Then all of a sudden Jem told Scout not to talk to him in school and she wasn't allowed to play games with him and Dill. Eventually, Jem would just sit in his room and not even let Scout talk to him. Toward the end of the book Jem was more of an older brother than a friend to Scout. Jem would take care of her just as Atticus would when he wasn't around. At the trial while Atticus was working he did as Atticus wanted and commanded Scout and Dill to leave the courtroom, but with Scout being so stubborn that didn't happen until Dill started crying hysterically. Throughout the book, Jem changed from a boy to a teenager. Ever since the first summer Dill came to Maycomb, he had been friends with Jem and Scout. Those kids always loved exploring together and making new games to occupy themselves. When he started coming to his Aunt Rachel's for the summer he told Jem and Scout that he had won $5 by entering a picture of himself to a Beautiful Children contest. Already he had seemed a little strange. He was a rather small kid, and was the same age as Scout. Dill just loved Scout. All throughout the book he was convinced that they would grow up and marry each other. He never admitted much about his family until multiple summers later when he ran away from his own home. He had said that his family had just passed him off one at a time because no one wanted him, until his mom finally took him in and gave him a true home. At the end of the book, Dill was grown up enough to admit what his life had been like, and Jem and Scout still accepted him like they always did. Not only did lots of the characters grow and develop, but the town of Maycomb as a whole did, too. When something as serious as the big trial happening in a small town like that, a lot more people realized how wrong it was to treat African-Americans like they were. Atticus wasn't the only one who knew that Tom Robinson was innocent, but everyone was too afraid of ruining their reputation to say anything. The moment Tom got shot in jail I think the town knew how serious his trial really was. The way aunt Alexandria broke down to Miss Maudie really showed me that the ladies of the town weren't just gossipers; they had feelings, and Tom’s death really hit home for her. Growing and developing is a huge theme , among any others in the book "To Kill a Mockingbird". In an instant children can just grow up just like Jem and Dill did. People who say time flies couldn’t be more correct.