When you are younger, you are innocent and believe that the world is good and no harm can come to you or the people you know. That is false. The world is a cruel place where innocence is something that can be taken away easily through bad deeds and the witnessing of them. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, the book takes place in Maycomb County, a town where racial injustice and poverty exist. The main characters are Scout and Jem, both of which are fairly innocent to the world. When their father decides to take a court case about a black man who raped a white woman, they are exposed to the true nature of people. The loss of innocence is one of the central themes in Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird. As the book progresses …show more content…
They try to escape but Jem’s arm gets broken and he is unconscious for the rest of the novel. Luckily, they are rescued by Boo Radley and are taken home where Jem gets treated. Bob Ewell figured that attacking Atticus’s children was the next best thing to hurting him, since he was too much of a coward to do it directly. He had a grudge against Atticus for doing a good job of defending a black man, which was unthinkable given the status of black people during that time period. Through this, Scout learns firsthand about hatred. The experience with Bob Ewell also causes her to learn that innocence and youth are no protection against the evils of the world. If Scout were to be exposed to this in the beginning of the book, she wouldn’t have an understanding of what is going on. When she would find out Boo Radley brought her brother home, she would’ve been terrified of him like earlier in the book. Through these examples, Harper Lee shows that it is required for a child to lose their innocence when going through life, as it is part of their development as a person. She demonstrates this theme by showing how much Jem and Scout have changed over the book. They start off with a lot of innocence and some knowledge of the outside world, but as these events occur in Maycomb County, both Jem and Scout become more and more aware. Through these examples, Harper Lee shows that it is required for a child to lose their innocence when going through life, as it is part of their development as a
I am reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This book is about a girl, named Scout, her brother Jem, and the people who lived in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama during the 1930s. Along with their summer friend, Dill, the children become obsessed with the idea of getting a look at their unseen neighbor, Boo Radley. Meanwhile, their father, Atticus Finch, decided to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who was wrongly accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. The children get caught up in the trial, in which Tom is convicted and eventually killed while trying to escape from prison.
“I’ve always been fascinated with the stealing of innocence. It’s the most heinous crime, and certainly a capital crime if there ever was one. ”(Clint Eastwood) In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, this quote reigns true for many reasons. The book starts as a family and friend oriented community, but its true colors show when Atticus Finch takes on a black mans trial.
Every child lives in a fantasy world, they believe that everyone will always do the right thing with no hesitation. No one can say when a child will begin to mature and lose focus with this world they have allowed to believe is the same one, that everyone else is living in. Everyone goes through that one life altering moment as a child, that makes them realize their innocence has been taken, and it is only then that they are forced to see the world for its true colors. In the novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, Jem Finch was once living in a fantasy world, he then was force to lose his innocence by hearing the verdict of Tom Robinson’s trial, and by losing his innocence he gained knowledge that allowed him to understand Society better
Loss of innocence is when someone comes to a realization through an event that alters their perception and understanding of reality. The novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is set in the small town of Maycomb in the 1930s, also known as the Great Depression. Many characters play a specific role in the novel, for instance, Boo Radley plays a mysterious character that scares children unintentionally because of events in the past. Atticus Finch, who is a white lawyer, becomes well-known to the black activists in the community because he takes on the case of Tom Robison, a black person accused of raping a white woman. The aftermath of taking the case was sizable.
The lost of a child’s innocence is like taking training wheels off a bike. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the lost of innocence is exemplified through a prejudice society. Life experiences leads to the loss of innocence as you are exposed to the real world. At such a young age, Scout knew all of the flaws of Maycomb’s society.
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.
Innocence is a time in one’s life of carefreeness and peace. In youth, children have yet to experience the harsh realities of life, and when they do, it is often hard to cope with. In her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee portrays Maycomb’s prejudiced ways through an unfair trial of an innocent man, and through the treatment of certain members of the community. The young narrator, Scout, and her older brother, Jem, experience growth and learn compassion when the trial exacerbates Maycomb’s intense intolerance. In this novel, Lee uses the characterization of the Finch children to demonstrate that innocent children who have been exposed to their community’s prejudice, often have trouble adjusting, but need a mentor figure to help them mature.
Jem and Scout learn many valuable life lessons throughout the novel and although they “grow up” at a much faster rate than other children in Maycomb, they will become people that have lots of wisdom and have been exposed to the real world. The experiences that the children have throughout their childhood help them solve problems, think wisely, and shape their
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 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.
Children are very impressionable people. Almost everything around them changes them in some way. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the main characters, Scout and Jem, start out as little kids who spend their days making up stories and playing sill games. Then their dad, who is a lawyer, takes on a case defending a black man who has been charged with rape. Since they live in Alabama, The whole family has to absorb some pretty ugly things, which forces Scout and Jem to grow up quickly, and it gives them a different and more mature view of the world.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Jem grows from a little boy to an intelligent young man. Throughout the book, he discerns many things that shape his personality. As Jem grows, he learns how bad society is and that not everyone is perfect. Fortunately for Jem, this ends up helping him and he finds out that Atticus is a hero and that he should look up to Atticus. Through Atticus and the trial, Jem loses his innocence by learning about prejudice, bravery, and that the justice system is crippled.
The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is about two kids, Jem and Scout, and their childhood in their small town Maycomb, Alabama. In the beginning of the novel, Jem and Scout were two innocent kids playing in the summer sun, until school came along. Jem was about twelve throughout the novel and Scout was eight, and considering that Jem was twelve in the novel, he was changing. During the middle of the novel a rape trial occurred, which included a black man being accused by a white woman of first-degree rape. Atticus, the kid’s father was defending the african american man; Tom Robinson.
To Kill a Mockingbird has many of underlying themes such as racism, courage, respect, femininity, etc. But the theme that fits this book most appropriately is innocence and the harm caused to the innocent by evil and bigotry. Examples of this include Jem, Dill, Tom Robinson, Boo Radley. While all these characters have completely different personalities and circumstances they all have one thing in common. All of them were innocent at one point and were harmed by the evil of
The way the people and the town influence Jem and Scout make the characters more realistic and the overall story much more interesting. To Kill a Mockingbird is an exceptional novel that conveys many positive messages throughout. In her novel, Lee creates honest and relatable characters that take the reader on a journey through life in the south during the Great Depression. Readers are impressed by Lee’s eloquent writing and amazing characters, all of which make To