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Loss Of Innocence In To Kill A Mockingbird

Decent Essays

To Kill a Mockingbird Most Americans endure a childhood full of happiness and carelessness. On the other hand, two siblings, Jem and Scout, grow up in the racially divided South and explore the adult world when their father is looked down upon for defending an African American. The children are forced to grow up through characters and other facets in their small, separated town of Maycomb. Throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee emphasizes the loss of innocence through a series of mature and emotional events. Mayella Ewell claims on the night of November 21st, she was raped and beaten by an African American man, Tom Robinson. This alleged rape was most certainly false although it was to hide something greater. Mayella’s father would beat her and would molest her. When Mayella stepped up to the podium to defend herself, “she seemed somehow fragile-looking, but… she became what she was, a thick-bodied girl accustomed to strenuous labor”(page 239). This showed Mayella has grown up quickly through the abuse and labor from her father. She has lost the …show more content…

The friends and fellow classmates of Jem and Scout, laughed and stayed away from the children whose “father was defending a n-----.” Before the trial, the children were innocent and worrying about the simple pleasures of childhood. Page 87 states, “No it ain’t, it’s so cold it burns. Now don’t eat it. Scout you’re wasting it. Let it come down.” In this, the children are so naive and non exposed to the world that they don't’ know about the simplicities such as snow. But during the trial, things start to change. Scout begins asking questions such as, “Do you defend n-----s Atticus?” (page 99) and, “What’s a whore lady?” (page 115). At the pinnacle of the trial, Jem has fully morphed into a respectable adult and Scout is well on her

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