To Kill a Mockingbird is a story about a little girl's coming-of-age, a type of narrative which is also called a bildungsroman in literature. Over the course of the novel, Scout learns that the neighborhood boogie man is friendly, that other children don't have as much as she does in life, and that hypocrisy is a home-grown, domestic product.
The book starts off with Jem spreading tales about Boo Radley that he learned from the town gossip, Miss Stephanie Crawford. These stories about Boo going out at night, peeking into people's windows, and stabbing his own father with scissors scare Scout. Jem discovers that Boo Radley is friendly before Scout does, but he lets her in on what he learns and passes the information to her. The children discover that Boo Radley is nice when he gives them gifts in the knothole of a tree and when he gives Scout a blanket on the night of Miss Maudie's house fire. Jem explains their findings to Atticus by saying the following:
". . . but Atticus, I swear to God he ain't ever harmed us, he ain't ever hurt us, he coulda cut my throat from ear to ear that night but he tried to mend my pants instead. . . he aint ever hurt us, Atticus. . . [Scout] You were so busy looking at the fire you didn't know it when he put the blanket around you" (72).
Jem is critical in helping Scout realize that Boo Radley is a friend, not a foe. Through this experience, she learns not to judge someone by gossip or superstitious stories.
Next, through other young characters such as Mayella Ewell and her siblings, Scout learns that life could be a lot harder for her than she realizes. From Mayella's court testimony, Scout learns the following:
". . . their relief check was far from enough to feed the family, and there was strong suspicion that Papa drank it up anyway—he sometimes went off in the swamp for days and came home sick; the weather was seldom cold enough to require shoes, but when it was, you could make dandy ones from strips of old tires; the family hauled its water in buckets from a spring that ran out at one end of the dump . . . and it was everybody for himself as far as keeping clean went . . . the younger children had perpetual colds and suffered from chronic ground itch . . ." (183).
Scout feels compassion and sorrow for the Ewell children. She knew things were bad when she met Burris Ewell on her first day of school, but she didn't know how bad until she heard Mayella's testimony.
Finally, one of the biggest revelations that Scout has is in third grade, after the Tom Robinson trial is a few months old. Although she doesn't know the word for what she experiences, she discovers hypocrisy. Her teacher, Miss Gates, talks about Hitler and his prejudiced treatment of Jews. Miss Gates is flabbergasted as to why Hitler would treat such a good group of people with such animosity, disrespect, and prejudice. However, Miss Gates does not make a connection in class to the discrimination and prejudice experienced by African Americans in her own hometown, which Scout catches. There was a time when Scout wouldn't have blinked at the difference in what Miss Gates says and what she does, but at the Tom Robinson trial, Scout has matured, grown and learned a lot about life. She explains her feelings about Miss Gates' lesson to Jem after school by saying the following:
"Well, coming out of the courthouse that night Miss Gates . . . was talking with Miss Stephanie Crawford. I heard her say it's time somebody taught 'em a lesson, they were gettin' way above themselves, an' the next thing they think they can do is marry us. Jem, how can you hate Hitler so bad an' then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home—" (247).
The above passage shows that Scout connects the way African Americans are treated in Maycomb with how Jews are treated in Germany. It also shows that her thinking skills are maturing and she is figuring things out without as much help as she did before. As a result, Scout's views of the world definitely change from initially believing superstitious gossip to realizing that nothing is ever what it seems on the surface.
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