Mockingbird Innocence Theme

In 'To Kill a Mockingbird' many morals about the themes in the novel are portrayed through different issues and events. The major themes are appearance vs. reality courage, maturity and prejudice. Each of these themes has an event in the novel that help the reader understand its message.

There is a dominant motif in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, regarding the symbolic importance of the mockingbird and how it relates to some of her characters. In Harper Lee’s portrayed world as well as our present day world mockingbirds represent nothing but pure innocence, thus to kill a mockingbird would be to destroy innocence. Atticus Finch, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley are all perfect examples representing a mockingbird; innocents who have been injured or destroyed through contact with

To Kill A Mockingbird, a novel written by Harper Lee, has many themes in it, including the concept of innocence. This concept is very obvious as the main character, who you are also reading through the eyes of, ranges throughout the book in ages between 6 and 9. Everything described and explained to the reader, is from the perspective of a young girl named Scout, which causes the difficult themes and occurrences in the novel, to be overlooked slightly, as she does not understand the significance to its full extent.

In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird innocence is spread throughout the novel. Innocence is connected to the mockingbird because they do nothing but sing. There are three examples of innocence within the novel; Boo Radley, Mayella Ewell, and Tom Robinson.

She tells Scout that it’s right to respect people who are different from them and wrong to judge them based on their status. Calpurnia gave Scout a small talk after her disrespectful behavior during dinner and said, “ There’s some folks who don’t eat like us... but you ain’t called on to contradict em at the table when they don’t….Don’t matter who they are, anybody sets foot in this house’s yo’ company, and don’t you let me catch you remarkin’ on their ways like you was so high and mighty!”(33). Calpurnia teaches Scout that he should treat people with reverence and always respect their differences no matter what.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has various critical themes, my first theme I've chosen is forgiveness ,forgiveness in the novel Harper Lee has used Atticus to show forgiveness by the quote” this time we aren't fighting the Yankees were fighting a friend but remember this no matter have bad things get that you're still at a friend's and this is our home “. Atticus explained to Scout about the towns judgement on his decision to defend a black man ( Tom Robinson ) the quote represents the thought of the town is can split and come back together despite their differences they will always come back together and eventually forgive or understand the people's actions . Everyone make mistakes and make mistakes sometimes you might just need to understand their view before you judge

Throughout “To Kill A Mockingbird”, innocence is a common theme. To portray this innocence, Lee used symbolism. Within multiple chapters, Lee refers to the mockingbird as an innocent creature whom did nothing wrong. She portrayed this innocence within characters of the novel. Although Tom Robinson is the most prominent example of this, there are plenty others.

In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird a major theme is the loss of innocence. Whether from emotional abuse, racial prejudice or learning, Boo, Tom, and Scout all lose their innocence in one sense or another. The prejudice that each character endures leads to their loss. Through the responses of Boo, Tom, and Scout, Harper Lee shows how each character responded differently to their loss of innocence.

    Calpurnia is one of the most influential individuals in maycomb. She is the housekeeper of the Finch family and tries to teach scout proper manners. Along with teaching her everyday manners she teaches Scout tolerance. One time she shows and teaches tolerance is when she is saying to scout, "There's some folks who don't eat like us," she whispered fiercely, "but you ain't called on to contradict 'em at the table when they don't…” (29) Calpurnia is showing tolerance here by giving Scout a different perspective on the Cunninghams and how they are less fortunate than the Finch family. She doesn’t

The Mockingbird had become something symbolic in the story. The mockingbird represents innocence and portrays itself through several different characters in the story; such as Scout Finch or Boo Radley. Despite their innocence however, they can be injured with their contact with evil. In the story, it’s explained how Boo Radley’s innocence is tainted because of his abusive father. Thus the extended metaphor or symbolism would explain that killing a mockingbird is tainting innocence. When Scout inquires her, Miss Maudie explains, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but . . . sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” This also links the connection of Scout and Jem both having the last name finch, which is another name for a particularly small (and also harmless) bird.

The word innocence has multiple meanings in the english dictionary that can all differ from each other. Such as freedom from sin or moral wrong, lack of knowledge, or harmlessness. These definitions of innocence perfectly fits right into the symbol and theme of the book To Kill A Mockingbird although they do not express the sameway to each other. In the book the reader will constantly be told that it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird which was said by Atticus Finch, he intends to tell Scout to not harm something that does not have the knowledge of the situation and is harmless to others. Alongside of what Atticus says to Scout, the mockingbird in the book symbolizes the innocence of the people of Maycomb.

In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird the most commonly identified theme is the loss or destruction of innocence. Innocence has a number of meanings and a lot of these are shown within the story. The main ones represented in the book are, the state, quality, or fact of being innocent of a crime or offense, lack of guile or corruption, having purity, and freedom from guilt or sin especially through lack of knowledge of evil. There are characters who include Jem and Scout, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley who show their definition of innocence through the book. Each of these characters who has their innocence goes down a path where they lose it and they have to take on the world face to face.

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is best known as a literary classic, telling the tale of a young girl named Jean Louise “Scout” Finch’s childhood in a southern Alabama town during the great depression. While the fate of a black male convicted of rape still looms in the synopsis. To Kill a Mockingbird the title of the novel, refers to a quote on page 119. Both said by Atticus Finch the town of Maycomb's lawyer and Miss Maudie his neighbor, “it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird”. As said by Miss Maudie “ Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (Lee 119). The title of this novel isn’t only referencing this quote,

The idea of mockingbirds in this text carries great symbolic weight, mockingbirds are considered the innocents in the novel. It is considered a sin to kill a mockingbird, which symbolizes the destruction innocence. Tom Robinson, Arthur “Boo” Radley, Jem and Mr. Raymond can all be identified as mockingbirds - innocents who have been injured or destroyed through contact with evil.

The Mockingbird is a symbol of innocence in To Kill a Mockingbird: “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (Lee 90). Ms. Maudie is trying to explain to the kids that it is a sin to kill something innocent. The Mockingbird does nothing harmful to them they just sing songs to the humans . There are many connecting symbols in To Kill a Mockingbird. Not only do many things in the book such as mockingbirds there are things in the book that represent these symbols. A mockingbird is innocent, keeps to itself, makes others happy much like Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and Scout Finch throughout the novel.