Examples Of Loss Of Innocence In To Kill A Mockingbird

“As Swift as a Bird: The Loss of Innocence” Harper Lee once wrote, “People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.” This quote can be shown true. In 1955, a young black male was killed and dumped in the river, only being found five days later. The boy was identified as Emmett Till and it was proven that two white males were responsible for the murder due to overwhelming evidence, but neither one of them were charged for their crime. This trial turned out to be one of the most famous trials in American history and is still talked about today because of the blatant bias towards the whites in the 1950s. Scout, the protagonist in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, experiences a similar trial throughout the second half

Racial discrimination is a huge part of the novel and multiple characters go through it. The first example is Calpurnia, Scout’s housekeeper. At first, Scout doesn’t respect Calpurnia much, but after Scout hears her speaking a different language, she learns to respect her a bit more, saying, “That Calpurnia lead a modest double life never dawned on me.” This quote shows the shift between not respecting Calpurnia to learning to respect her more for being herself even though the rest of the community doesn’t respect her because she’s black. The second example of racial discrimination is obviously the Tom Robinson case. One of the main reasons why Tom was convicted of his crime was because he was black and whites often held a higher power in the courtroom. Atticus knows from the beginning that Tom will not win this trial, and he reminds his kids constantly that racism is real and it is everywhere in Maycomb. Scout seems to catch on as she starts to see racism almost everywhere she goes. Discrimination against social classes is also prevalent in the novel. An example of this is when in the beginning of the novel, the teacher, Miss Caroline, was surprised to see a kid with lice. The kid turned out to be Burris Ewell, the younger brother of Mayella Ewell, the girl who claimed that Tom Robinson had raped her. Burris is described as “the filthiest human [Scout] had ever seen.” His whole body seemed to be covered in dirt, which explains why he had lice. This shows that even though the Ewells seem to be a poor, low-class family, they are whites going against a black man in court, so they will win no matter what. Scout is one of the first ones to see this connection and she finds it unfair how no one would listen to Tom’s side of the story even though Tom was at a higher class than the Ewells. These examples of discrimination lead Scout to see that life