Theme Of Loss Of Innocence In To Kill A Mockingbird

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 characters in To Kill A Mockingbird and the people in our society don’t understand our world until they’ve experienced a loss of innocence. Growing up is a hard part of life. When people are younger, they’re naive and not aware of anything outside their home. When experiencing loss of innocence, people are more aware of right and wrong. People are beginning the rules and concepts of life. Experiencing a life lesson can lead to a loss of innocence. People are finally maturing and understanding situations from others perspectives.

Everyday, people of all ages lose their innocence and develop morally through their daily experiences. Children deal with mishaps on the playground, conflicts with friends and family, and trouble in school. Similarly, Adults deal with conflicts within their own families, problems at work, and the loss of a loved one. In each situation, the person is learning important lessons that impact the way a person thinks, acts, approaches situations, and treats others. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Jem loses his innocence and grows morally through his daily experiences in three stages of understanding in Maycomb, Alabama.

In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, the theme of innocence and growing up is central to the book. Lee conveys innocence as naïvety, as a narrow or restricted world view that expands as one grows older. Throughout the book, we see this theme develop alongside Scout, Jem, and Dill, who, as time goes on, transition from blindly accepting everything they experience from life in Maycomb, to being able to know what is right and wrong when they see it.

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.

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

make fun of or judge a guest of the house. In her innocence, she had

Destroyed Innocence Imagine this, you are a young child in Uganda, wars wage all around you. Different tribes are fighting over territory, and everyone you once knew is either missing or killed. And although you don't quite understand what death and suffering are, you are kidnapped and forced to join the local militia. Unrecognizable men hold you at gunpoint and make you do tasks that they would never do themselves. You fight gruesome battles.

Throughout time the loss of child-like innocence has affected many. In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird the loss of child-like innocence is made evident through the main characters Scout and Jem as well as the minor character of Mayella Ewell. There innocence is lost in both daily life and an unfair and unjust court case. Racism, untrue rumors, and discrimination all pay a toll in losing these characters innocence.

This novel is real in its portrayal of the 1930s. As a result, The children in this book are exposed to very graphic things at a young age. This results in a very sped up way of growing up, and Harper Lee gives examples throughout the book that show that loss of innocence or facing harsh realities that exist in the real world. This is shown greatly through the eyes of Jean Louise Finch. She faces the reality of Maycomb’s dark personality and has to see some horrible things. This vastly speeds up how fast she grows up because she has to. It is also to a lesser degree with Jem mostly because he isn't the central focus of the book (To Kill A Mockingbird) so the reader doesn't know his thoughts. The author outlines a great point that the with the loss of innocence comes wisdom and unfortunately hard truth’s.

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.

“Innocence once lost, can never be regained”. To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee in 1960 that highlights the serious issue of racial inequality. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout shows how the loss of innocence changes her perspective of Maycomb through the events of Atticus defending Tom Robinson outside of the jailhouse, The trial of Tom Robinson, and when Bob Ewell attempted to murder her and her brother. Scout’s loss of innocence can be seen when Atticus stayed outside of the jailhouse.

From the very beginning of To Kill a Mockingbird until nearly the end, Scout serves as a prime example of a person like this, with her childlike naivety still fully intact. She is evidently oblivious to the racism in Maycomb, and the white people's methods of discriminating against the African-Americans. She does not comprehend the meaning of the name-calling, or the use of the “n-word”: "Cecil Jacobs made me forget. He had announced in the schoolyard the day before that Scout Finch’s daddy defended niggers. I denied it, but told Jem.

Loss of innocence is a consistent theme in To Kill A Mockingbird that is painted around the main character, Jean Finch. The reader knows enough information about her to interpret how her character will exemplify this theme. Jean is just like Anger from the movie Inside Out. As her father describes her, “Scout's just as soon jump on someone as look at him if her pride’s at stake” (100). Jean’s hot headed just like Anger, who is very passionate about making sure things are fair for Riley. Similarly, Jean can vehemently get violent when it comes to her father’s respect. Atticus fears that this quality will cause trouble for her in the future, saying, “I hope I can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness, and most of all, without catching

To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in a tiny southern town in Alabama in 1932. The tiny town of Maycomb was home to deep rooted racism. Two children named Scout and Jem live in this town with their father Atticus and when their father is sent to defend a black man their lives see a dramatic change. The children soon learn the harsh truth of their little town and lose a childhood full of innocence. In her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, author Harper Lee foreshadows a loss of innocence through the symbolic significance of building a snowman, a harsh fire, and a mockingbird.