Mockingbird Innocence Theme

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 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 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.

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

Calpurnia has taught the children how to contend with issues of race and class that exist in the segregated society. In Chapter 3, Walter Cunningham Jr. has dinner with the Finch family, and Scout is disgusted when he pours syrup all over his meal. Scout embarrasses Walter at the dinner table by rudely asking him “what the sam hill is he doing”. Calpurnia then requests Scout's presence in the kitchen and proceeds to reprimand Scout for her rude behavior. “Yo’ folks might be better’n the Cunninghams but it doesn’t count for nothin’ the way you’re disgracin’ ‘em if you can't act fit to eat at the table you can just sit here and eat in the kitchen!”. This quote supports that Calpurnia commanded Scout that she has no right to contradict Walter for his eating habits and teaches Scout a lesson of social equality and conscience. Calpurnia tells Scout that it doesn't matter if her family is considered "better" than the Cunninghams; Scout needs to treat Walter courteously and equally. Calpurnia also warns Scout not to act "high and mighty" around her guests by disgracing them, or she might punish her since she would have to eat in the kitchen. Calpurnia essentially teaches Scout how to handle and treat people that the prejudiced society considers “not their kind of folks”. She encourages Scout to view Walter impartially and treat him the same way she would want to be treated. It is significant how this lesson comes from Calpurnia, because, as a black woman

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.

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.

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

In To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, losing one's innocence is a major factor in shaping each of the characters personalities and beliefs in the story. By looking at The Inevitably of the Loss of Innocence, we can see that as each of the characters are growing up, they get more shocked by the reality of the harsh world because they have not yet learned hatred in their peers and community and because of the realization that not everybody is kind and has good morals. This is important because Lee displays this theme in the story by creating conflicts such as Tom Robinson's trial and the children's reaction to the verdict. Lee uses characterization for Boo Radley by giving the audience an overview about people's view on him and the horrifying

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.

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 start, Harper Lee expresses the theme, “Loss of Innocence” through Scout’s curiosity. Scout has grown a lot since the beginning of the book. At the beginning of the book Scout was a young girl and very curious. She wanted all her questions answered about everything. Some of her biggest questions had to do with Boo Radley. Scout always wanted to know what was wrong with Boo Radley and why he was never allowed to leave his house. Throughout the story she realizes she will never know and it was not her business anyways. This is shown by the quote, “Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives. But neighbors give in return. We never put back into the tree what we took out of it: we had given him nothing, and it made me sad… [It was] Summer, and he watched his children’s

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.

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.