Jean Louise Innocence

The innocence and purity in today’s America hardly ever exists anymore, due to the influence of technology amongst children as well and the information network, the Internet. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, innocence is a major characteristic of Jean Louise. The development of Jean Louise is often based upon the fact that she is an innocent and curious child, who hears things and then regurgitates them out once more. This proves that in this book, innocence is to be cherished and protected, lest thus emerges from this world a generation of illness and disease.

In the part of the story where Jean’s extended family are visited and introduced, it is seen that Jean’s innocence protects her, and that other people guard her mind as well. For in this part of the book, Jeans picks a fight with Francis, since he called her father, Atticus, a nigger-lover.

In another part of the novel, where she recalls the history of Maycomb as a whole, she mentions a caste system. Jean states that although having knowledge of the existence of such a caste system, she did not truly see it as it was at that time, believing it only to be made of the elder generations and the younger generations, as well as the “hereditary traits” given by her Aunt Alexander, However, in history, it is well known that the traditional overarching caste system in the South of the United States was that the African Americans were inferior to the Caucasian people. Thus, although she seems to know a little of this, she did not recognize that that was the way the older people often thought, proving herself innocent and not privy to the knowledge of the way of life. Presumably, she would not have known about the Jim Crow laws, and is genuinely confused as to why certain things happen,