Children tend to have a more visceral, more immediate sense of the cruelties and injustices of the world. To a large extent, this is due to their relative innocence. That's not to say that adults in Maycomb are wholly inured to the injustice that pervades their society; we only have...
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to think ofAtticus to see that isn't true. It's just that the adults of the town need to live in the world surrounding them, whether they accept the prevailing injustice or not. Children don't need to do this as they're still dependent on adults for their care and support.
Racial prejudice is deeply ingrained in Maycomb society, as it is in much of the South. It would take a very brave individual indeed to stand up and challenge those prejudices. At best, they'd be ostracized, at worst, subjected to violence. So, if you're going to live in a town like Maycomb you have to look at the bigger picture and make the appropriate compromises. This is a perspective which only comes through years of experience until, eventually, it becomes second nature.
It is in Chapter 20 of Harper Lee's To Kill a
Mockingbird that Mr. Dolphus Raymond tells Scout, when Dill is older, he
will no longer "cry about the simple hell people give other people--without
even thinking. Cry about the hell white people give colored folks, without even
stopping to think that they're people, too." In saying this, Raymond is
asserting that people become jaded and desensitized as time
goes on. The more they witness horrors, the less of an impact those horrors
have on their emotions. Children, like Dill, are still innocent enough to be
able to recognize how truly horrible injustices are. As Raymond explains,
though Dill may still recognize injustices as he gets older, injustices
will no longer make him cry because he will have become to
used to them. Hence, children are different from adults because they
are still young and innocent, whereas adults have lost
their innocence through witnessing horror upon horror so that
injustices no longer create the emotional impact they should.
Raymond's thoughts serve to develop Lee's coming-of-age theme.
As the novel progresses, Scout grows up quite a bit. As she grows up, she
learns more about how "there's just one kind of folks. Folks" (Ch. 23). She
further learns not to judge folks until you've walked in their shoes (Ch. 31).
But, also, as she grows up, she witnesses injustices, and though she recognizes
they are injustices, they do not have the same emotional impact that they had
on innocent Dill.