Theme Of Innocence In To Kill A Mockingbird

Innocence is a word used to describe someone 's purity. Children are prime examples of innocence, as they don’t have judgments and don’t understand mature topics. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the reader can interpret innocence as the growing up of the children. Specifically, Jem Finch showed a loss of innocence as he grew up. He showed his loss of innocence by not playing games, his more mature use of words and body language, and his different view of the world around him. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, Jem Finch goes through change and his innocence of the world is lost as the book progresses.
In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem loses his innocence when he stops playing games with Scout and Dill. As Dill and Scout would play in their tree house, Jem would not want to come play with them. Jem didn’t think they were cool. When Jem was younger, though, he would play with them all day and think nothing of it. In the text it states, “He’s gonna want to be off to himself a lot now, doin’ whatever boys do, so you can just come right on in the kitchen when you feel lonesome” (Lee 154). They would also try to get Boo Radley to come out of his house, but Jem started to think it was childish as he got older. As Jem stopped playing games, it was a clear sign that he was growing up.
As Jem starts to mature, his body language and use of words also start to show his overall maturity and his loss of innocence. Specifically, he acts exactly like his father,