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Examples Of Innocence In To Kill A Mockingbird

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'Guilty...guilty...guilty...guilty...' I peeked at Jem: his hands were white from gripping the balcony rail, and his shoulders jerked as if each "guilty" was a separate stab between them… (Lee 211). Jem and Scout Finch from the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Arnold Spirit (Junior) from The Absolutely True Diary by Sherman Alexie all show that innocence is lost when compassion is found.

In To Kill A Mockingbird, both Jem and Scout show innocence. Scout when her classmates are making fun of Atticus for defending a black man , and Jem when he believed Nathan Radley when he cemented the tree because it was “ill”. Scout hears her classmates saying terrible things about Atticus because he's defending a black man, but she doesn't see the wrong in what her father is doing. Atticus explains to her that it's not really a bad thing, but some people see it that way. Scout is too young to understand prejudice and injustice. Atticus tries to preserve this innocence by raising her to believe that there is nothing wrong with defending a black man. Jem also shows innocence in To Kill A Mockingbird. Jem shows his innocence in chapter 7 when Nathan Radley sealed the children's secret knothole. Jem naturally believed Nathan Radley when …show more content…

An example of this is when Nathan Radley sealed the children's secret knothole. What Jem didn’t realize is that Nathan Radley was trying to stop communication from Scout, Jem, and Boo Radley. However, Jem learned from Atticus that the tree was perfectly healthy, and Jem soon realized that he had been lied to. Jem saw that Nathan's true reason was simply to prevent Boo from making any further contact with the children. “He stood there until nightfall, and I waited for him. When we went in the house, I saw he had been crying; his face was dirty in the right places, but I thought it odd that I had not heard him.” (Lee chapter

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