Your child just doesn't understand, he's in middle school but acts like a preschooler. He looks like a young man and has started shaving, but he acts like your sister's eight year old. There are always some stages of childhood that transform children into adults. In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (TKM), during the 1930s in a fictional town of Maycomb, readers are faced with two young children struggling to reach adulthood. Over the course of TKM Scout, a six-year-old girl, and Jem, a boy entering fifth grade, hint at mental transformations in the way the two think and act. The two little troublemakers begin to see how their decisions affect those around them, pushing Jem and Scout to see what it truly means to grow up, not grow old. The transformation from childhood to adulthood is a bumpy road of changes and choices that shape adults together. Jem and Scout's obvious changes in TKM show how they are starting to think like adults. One of the three fundamental aspects of adulthood is maturity. When we first meet Jem and Scout in TKM, the mystery of Boo Radley intrigues Jem, Scout, and Dill, who hatch a plan to lure him out of Boo's house. In their immaturity the three develop the idea of ​​reenacting Boo's life to keep Boo's interest and mystery alive. The game of recalling Boo's problems is an immature and childish game to play. At the end of the book Scout demonstrates her maturity to Boo Radley. “Over the course of the novel she learns to act in a more adult, even more ladylike way, and to see the people around her as real human beings,” (Shmoop). Scout plays the part of a woman who allows Boo to drive her to her house for the night. Scout understands their role as… middle of paper… challenges that shape them into mature, wise, self-controlled adults. In TKM, readers go through the process of growing up with Jem and Scout throughout the book. Jem experiences a change in thinking and gains an understanding of human nature. Scout learns to control her anger and matures into the young woman she is meant to be. Coming of age is a natural process that all adults go through; not all adults know the purpose of this process, so they do not learn. The transition from childhood to adulthood is a difficult and difficult period, full of challenges that every child must overcome to become an adult, as demonstrated in TKM.Work CitedLee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 1960. Print.MuditJ, . “Jeremy Finch’s Coming of Age: To Kill a Mockingbird.” Study mode. Mar 2011."The genre of To Kill a Mockingbird." Shmoop. Network. April 9 2014.