What are some examples of literary elements being used to convey coming-of-age moments in To Kill a Mockingbird?

In her bildungsroman, Harper Lee employs literary elements in order to better convey significant moments that describe Jem and Scout's maturation. Here are examples of the use of certain literary techniques:

• In Chapter 3, after Scout pleads with her father to allow her to stay home rather than to attend school, Atticus tells her that she should try to understand her new teacher, who is unfamiliar with Maycomb and its residents. The figure of speech of climbing into another's skin—feeling like that other person—helps Scout to reach an understanding of her teacher:

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view—...until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."

Later, in Chapter 7, Scout uses this figure of speech as she tries to understand Jem's feelings while he attempted to retrieve his pants from the Radley yard earlier: "I tried to climb into Jem's skin and walk around in it."

• In Chapter 5, Miss Maudie describes the Radley home as "a sad house," using personification in order to convey the mood of the home and the isolation of the occupants such as Boo Radley.


• In Chapter 6, after Jem gets his pants caught on the Radley fence and must climb out of them in order to escape when Nathan Radley steps out with his shotgun, he later sneaks off the back porch where he and Scout sleep. He wants to retrieve his pants so that he will not be caught in his deception. As he returns to the porch, Scout imagines what is happening as Lee employs personification:
  

"...Boo Radley's insane fingers picking the wire to pieces; the china berry trees were malignant, hovering, alive."

• In Chapter 10, Atticus gives the children air rifles for Christmas, but he cautions them to be careful with them. He tells his children that he knows they will take aim at birds, but they should never shoot mockingbirds because they just "sing their hearts out for us" and do no harm.

"Shoot at the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

This makes an impression upon Scout and Jem, and the mockingbird becomes a key metaphor and motif in Scout's narrative. Later, Scout recalls how Mr. Underwood uses the figurative mockingbird when he refers to the killing of Tom Robinson:

Mr. Underwood simply figured it was a sin to kill cripples.... He likened Tom's death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds [mockingbirds] by hunters and children....

• In Chapter 25, metaphor (unstated comparison) is used as Mr. Underwood has written an editorial in which he alludes to the "secret courts of men's hearts" in which Atticus had no case. "Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed."


• In Chapter 30, the motif of the mockingbird is again used, this time by Scout. When Mr. Tate and Atticus debate what to do about the death of Bob Ewell, the sheriff says that Boo should be left alone and not arrested. "Well, it'd be sort of like shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn't it?" Scout remarks when Atticus asks her what she thinks.