To Kill A Mockingbird Innocence Analysis

“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy… That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (Lee 119). Innocence is just like a mockingbird, it is robbed away from children who have done nothing wrong. The novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee takes place in the 1930s during the Great Depression, in a small-sized town called Maycomb in Alabama. Jem Finch and Dill Harris are young children that have to experience and see new things as they grow up and in the process lost some of their innocence. However, Scout Jem’s little sister is the only one that keeps her innocence throughout the novel. Harper Lee uses a mockingbird to represent innocence and demonstrates how the adult stole the innocence away from Dill, Jem, and Scout by showing them the reality of this cruel world, but should be protected for as long as possible. As Jem grows up, his innocence is taken away when he realizes that not everyone in Maycomb is as they seem. One of the first times he notices this is during Tom Robinson’s trial. Jem sees that the judicial system is biased because all the facts stated that Tom was clearly innocent but the jury voted him as guilty. This vote opens Jem’s eyes to how cruel people can be, and that people in Maycomb are not as they seem. They knowingly convicted an innocent

Jem and Dill have come to the age in the novel where they realize that the world is not perfect while Scout is still naive and thinks the world is a good place filled with only good people. Innocence is normally lost as a child comes to age because they see the suffering and evil in this world. The loss of innocence can also be found in real life; kids are exposed to these horrific aspects of life at an early age hence we must try to preserve their innocence by removing racism and corruption from