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Tom Robinson's Innocence

798 Words4 Pages

“Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (Lee 119). In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Atticus Finch and his children Scout and Jem live in the prejudice town of Maycomb, Alabama. In the town they have many misconceptions of things such as Boo Radley, who has not been seen out of his house for fifteen years ever since he was caught causing a disturbance but the children soon figure out what really occurred after he got into trouble. As the story progresses Atticus accepts the request to defend a colored man named Tom Robinson which affects his family in multiple ways. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee uses characterization to show how in the process of growing up children …show more content…

The verdict of Tom Robinson’s case made young Jem despondent because he was so sure that the jury would have some some discretion and his father would win the case and felt "it ain't right" when they were told he was guilty (284). Jem couldn't wrap his head around about the idea of how the zealot jury's judgement is still clouded by the social norms of society even though there was evidence to prove Tom Robinson’s innocence. As he talks about the verdict of the case with Ms. Maudie he shares how his view of people changed. He "always thought Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world, least that's what they seemed like" (288). Jem's view of his great infallible town was crushed because of the case. He is coming to the age of understanding the dark side of society.
In Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird she uses characters as examples to display the growth of maturity where innocence is lost as well. The characters in the novel demonstrate the lessons they begin to learn as their maturity level grows and changes their perspective of the world. In the book it shows that at a young age children don't completely understand the issues that they're dealing with and when they do their reality changes. Therefore when characters go through many issues they lose their innocence but still can manage to have

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