In the Southern Gothic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows how each character can be innocent through different moments throughout the novel. The story tells of a little girl named Scout, who meets new people and learns how to be mature with all of the challenges she faces. Throughout the novel, she grows older and realizes that trusting other peoples’ words can hurt her in the long run. In To Kill a Mockingbird, characters’ actions illustrate how people mature as they grow.
Harper Lee teaches Scout innocence throughout the novel. Scout was racing past the Radley house when a tree caught her eye. In the tree was a piece of gum,“[Scouts] first impulse was to get it into [her] mouth as quickly as possible” (Lee 37). Scout displays
…show more content…
Tom was explaining what he had said and what he did to the jury when he said, “Mr.Finch, I tried. I tried to ‘thout bein’ ugly to her. I didn't wanta be ugly, I didn’t wanta push her or nothin’” (Lee 221). Tom Robinson clarifies his innocence when he tries to prove that he did not touch Mayella. Because of his race, everyone is trying to blame him for something he did not do. Lee provides this evidence in the novel to teach Tom Robinson that not everything in life goes your way. Which is going to influence the jury to choose a non-colored person. Atticus was leaving the post office when Mr.Ewell approached him and Atticus said, “Nothing happened. We’re scared for you, and we think you oughta do something about him” (Lee 249). Tom proves his innocence by not laying his hand on anyone else. When Tom uses his innocence on the good things, everyone else takes advantage of him and uses it against him. Lee conveys this message to show Tom that people in Maycomb can use things against you, no matter how innocent you are, which can hurt you. Tom Robinson and Atticus’ fight to prove that Toms’ innocence is the truth in doing so Lee shows that everyones’ opinion on each other can cause many different
Loss of Innocence Atticus had to educate his children about racism because of the trial he was working on for Tom Robinson, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing except sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird” (Lee 119). The novels To Kill a Mockingbird and All American Boys, as well as the movies Just Mercy and A Time to Kill all show the injustice that black people face in America. Each trial caused some or many of the people involved to lose a sense of innocence that they had.
(271). This quote shows Atticus defending Tom Robinson because he feels it is the right thing to do. Entering the trial, Atticus knew that it wasn’t possible to win with an all-white male, racist jury. Yet, he still chose to defend Tom till the very end. Atticus overcame the typical southern male stereotype of being racist, putting an end to the racist stereotype, and therefore a death to racism.
Savannah Smith Mrs Rollins Honours English 9 09 March 2023 The Loss of Innocence in To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee’s historical fiction novel To Kill a Mockingbird follows a young girl by the name of Scout Finch as she navigates childhood alongside her older adolescent brother, Jem. The story takes place in a small town in southern Alabama called Maycomb during the Great Depression. Atticus, a lawyer and the children's father, is created by Lee to be both a role model and a teacher. Atticus highlights the importance of understanding a person by “stand[ing] in his shoes and walk[ing] around in them”(321) whilst encouraging level-headedness.
Not an old Uncle, but a strong young Negro man. No code mattered to her before she broke it, but it came crashing down on her afterwards.”(Lee 272). Therefore, Atticus proves to the court with the evidence that Tom was not Guilty and Mayella Ewell tried to kiss Tom, and when Bob Ewell saw this he beat her and blamed it on Tom Robinson. “Our courts have their faults, as does any human institution, but in this country our courts are the great levellers, and in our courts all men are created equal” (Lee 273-274). Instead the court does not want people to hate them so they say that Tom was guilty.
The courtroom was in question if he was guilty or not for the raping of Mayella Ewell. Despite the lack of evidence and inconsistencies among the witnesses, Tom was found guilty because of his race. “ A jury never looks at a defendant it has convicted, and when this jury came in, not one of them looked at Tom Robinson” (pg 210). What was interesting is that Atticus Finch was able to use evidence to justify Tom's innocence. For example, when Tom is over at the Ewells household, he was trying to help Mayella
In the 1940s, many that were innocent people would end up being hurt because of their difference from others. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson, an African American who gets accused of a crime he didn’t commit, gets hurt because of his difference from others. The central idea of the book is that people should not hurt those who are innocent, there are several examples throughout the book that help represent this main idea such as symbolism, similes, and characters. To Kill a Mockingbird shows many examples of symbolism that supports the main idea of the book. An example of this, is the character Tom Robinson.
Jean Louise Finch (Scout) is a captivating narrator who compels the reader to listen to the story through her personality. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the author, Harper Lee, uses narration, dialogue, and setting to unravel Scout’s courageous, touchy, and rather inquisitive nature in an inventive and thrilling way. In order to adequately understand Scout as a character, the reader must look deeper to look into her mind rather than skimming the first layer. “‘You never really know a person until you consider things from his point of view...’” (Harper Lee 39).
Scout experiences challenges that embody the culture of the time. Because Scout learns that the judgment of others are often incorrect and misguided, Scout is also the protagonist in the story “How to kill a mockingbird” she is a young girl growing up in Maycomb, Alabama, during the 1930s. Scout is intelligent, curious, and fiercely independent, with a strong sense of justice and a desire to understand the world around her. Despite the many challenges she faces as a young girl in a deeply divided and prejudiced society, Scout remains determined to stand up for what she believes is right, even when it means going against the norms of her community. Through her eyes, we see the struggles and triumphs of a young girl coming of age in a world that
Imagine a story in which a character starts out blinded to the reality of his/her surroundings, he/she goes through a life-changing event, then he/she ends up realizing the truth about the reality. Lee appoints this baseline structure in her Bildungsroman To Kill a Mockingbird to pave the story of Scout, a second grader, whose father is appointed to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, who is wrongly prejudiced of committing a heinous crime. Scout has a playful beginning, when she aims to make her neighbor Boo show himself, but later, while and after witnessing the aforementioned man's trial, Scout learns the truth about the social motives of the world, both written and unwritten. While doing so, Scout matures, but at a major cost. To emphasize
Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, and Pulitzer Prize winner uses her book as a way to write about her own life growing up. Sometimes a sleepy town in Maycomb County has more to the story. Jem and Scout Finch learn this through Atticus’s acts of bravery and by losing their innocence through the Tom Robinson trial. Throughout the book Harper Lee uses many themes including courage, loss of innocence, and walking in someone else’s shoes.
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the all-encompassing theme of the narrative, loss of innocence, through several of the characters as a means of illustrating the innocence found in all that can be instantly gone by an earth-shattering event. Loss of innocence is found throughout “Scout” Finch, “Jem” Finch, and Tom Robinson. Scout can best be described as an outgoing, strong willed young girl with fists to match. With no inherent desire to dress or remotely act lady like, (“I felt the starched walls of a pink cotton penitentiary closing in on me”) ( Lee 136) ,as evidenced that she shuns her real name, Jean Louise, and instead prefers to use her more tomboyish name, Scout.
In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee tells a poignant coming-of-age story about the loss of innocence in the character of Scout. Three significant events illustrate this fact. The first example portrayed in the novel occurred when Scout went to the jail to find out what Atticus was up to, only to find that a mob had arrived to lynch Tom Robinson. This event left Scout with the notion of a mob mentality. Another event was the turning point of the story, the trial of Tom Robinson; this defining moment taught Scout of prejudice and injustice.
Atticus takes on the case of Tom even though all odds are against him. Tom Robinson is a black man who is falsely accused of raping a white woman. The people in the town are taking out their anger and frustration over the case on Atticus. During this time, the color of Tom's skin is what is making people think he was guilty. Atticus knows that he will get a case that will affect his home life eventually, and this case was it.
Have you ever wondered which event in your life made you see everything differently? Everybody faces various experiences with the realities of the world that eventually results in the loss of their innocence. The loss of innocence can be the outcome of an incident witnessed, a final conclusion about an issue, or an understanding of a situation. The loss of innocence is the same thing as maturity. Now, of course, you can’t go to sleep one night and wake up mature.
The theme of the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is, all children experience a loss of innocence at some point in their youth. When a child loses their innocence they realize that the world was not as they thought is was. Jem and Scout Finch experience a loss of innocence after finding out that Boo Radley isn’t a “Malevolent Phantom”. Jem’s thought of Boo being a “Malevolent Phantom” emerges on (page 13) when he portrays Boo like this to Scout, "Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained -- if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.