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Loss Of Innocence In To Kill A Mockingbird

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In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the story takes place in a small, rural place in the heart of Alabama known as Maycomb County during the 1900’s. Many of the people who live in this town are innocent and pure who don’t have any intention of harming fellow residents. But some are more cruel than innocent, they don’t care if their actions harm those that are innocent. They take advantage of race and special privileges they’ve acquired to bring forth the destruction of the innocence that others possess. This destroying of innocence is the reason the book is entitled To Kill a Mockingbird. Mockingbirds symbolize innocence and purity, and when one destroys one's innocence, it’s considered “killing a Mockingbird”. The three characters …show more content…

During a court case that involves a falsely accused African-American rapist, he does everything in his power to keep the defendant from facing jail time or possibly even the death sentence. What makes Atticus different from many people in that time period is that he doesn’t have any prejudice toward not just African-Americans, but everybody. He treats every everyone with the same respect that they deserve. While in court, Atticus describes to the jury that just because of one’s race, doesn’t mean that they lie more than another by stating “You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women-black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men. There is not a person in this courtroom who has never told a lie, who has never done an immoral thing, and there is no man living who has never looked upon a woman without desire” (Lee 273), which shows how he treats everybody and every race with the same respect. Along with that, he tells his son that “Nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don’t mean anything... Trashy people use it when they think somebody’s favoring Negroes over and above themselves” (Lee 144), and when he’s asked by his son if he is a “Nigger-lover” he responds by saying “I certainly am. I do my best to love everybody” (Lee 144), which are other prime …show more content…

Tom represents a Mockingbird through his benevolence and willingness to help others. His generosity is shown when he’s walking home from work and he repeatedly stops and help Mayella Ewell with household work and chores. While Tom Robinson is in court being falsely tried for rape, he was asked if when he stopped to help Mayella, if he received money for what he had done to help her, which he responded with “No suh, not after she offered me a nickel for the first time. I was glad to do it, Mr. Ewell didn’t seem to help none and neither did the chillun, and I knowed she didn’t have no nickels to spare” (Lee 195). During the court case, when Atticus describes Tom to the jury, he says that Tom is “a quiet, respectable, humble, Negro who had the unmitigated temerity to ‘feel sorry’ for a white woman who had to put his word against two white people’s” (Lee 273). This shows that Tom is benevolent and how he has the generosity to help other people with only receiving the gratification of helping others in

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