To Kill A 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,

A principle of growing up is that at some point, every child goes through a loss of innocence. Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, it is easy to see the young characters growing up and beginning to notice things they never noticed before. One character in particular being Jem. He goes through the maturing stage throughout the book and it recognizes how he did so. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Jem faces a loss of innocence causing him to see from a more mature point of view.

Have you ever experienced an event that changed your opinions or feelings towards a certain thing? This was the case of Jean Louise or Scout in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Scout shows a loss of innocence throughout the novel as she is faced with the case of Tom Robinson, which impacts her life as a whole by making her realize that not everyone is like Atticus.

In this novel, innocence is represented from all ages yet all still contribute to the mockingbird factor. Charles Baker “Dill” Harris doesn’t develop and mature throughout the story. In this way, he is seen as a mocking bird because he’s innocent by his childish actions. His childish actions flow throughout To Kill A Mockingbird and he never changes this lifestyle, because that’s all he knows how to do. An example of this is in the court scene when we wasn’t aware of what’s going on, “Dill leaned across me and asked Jem what Atticus was doing”(Lee 254). In this scene the children snuck into the courthouse to listen to Atticus defend Tom Robinson, and Dill is questioning what is happening in the court.This scene is an example of

The genre of the story is historical fiction and the setting is the 1930’s southern America in a town called Maycomb, in Alabama. The story is narrated by Scout Finch, a young girl whose innocent heart has been exposed to the evils of southern United States in the 1930’s. This setting is vital to the plot of the summary because during that time was the great depression and racism was especially common in the south, where lynching rose from 8 in

Childhood years are a very impressionable time. This is no different for the fictional characters Scout and Jem Finch. Growing up in southern Alabama, they learned many lessons from the people around them and the circumstances they faced. Some of these important lessons learned are courage, empathy, and prejudice.

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.

“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy, that’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” The novel To Kill a Mockingbird is a book of exploration of the moral nature of human beings—that is, whether people are essentially good or essentially evil. A young girl named Scout deals with the issues of racism while gaining knowledge, experience, strength, and courage, while her father, a lawyer, is persecuted for defending a falsely accused black man being charged with raping a white girl. Many characters are judged upon their race, behavior, and social class.

"Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the

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

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.

Lucy Hooper, an American editor, novelist, poet, and playwright, once said, “Innocence is a flower which withers when touched.” Innocence is, in fact, a very interesting and complicated state of being. The literal definition of innocence is the state in which one is free of guilt. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the mockingbird is used a metaphor for innocence and people who are victimized and mistreated, but are completely harmless and innocent. the mockingbird is represented by and represents Arthur “Boo” Radley , who was misjudged by society and was a recluse, Charles Baker Harris (Dill), who felt unappreciated by his family, and represented childhood innocence, and Tom Robinson, who was victimized, crippled, and accused of raping

Innocence is a trait guaranteed upon birth; however, the preservation of that innocence is not. From the moment that an individual is born, the environment surrounding them silently extinguishes small pieces of their intrinsic innocence. This happens predominantly in miniscule increments, in which seemingly insignificant pieces of one's innocence are gradually taken away; but, just as taking one dollar from a jar containing 365 dollars every day for a year would result in an empty jar, even the smallest abduction of innocence each day of one's life would eventually result in a barren state of innocence. This state of purity is illustrated in To Kill a Mockingbird, in which the reader follows several different characters, each with a varying balance between innocence and experience. Throughout the piece, multiple dynamic characters have a considerable shift in this balance.

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.

Innocence is known as being free from moral wrong or guilt, while experience is gaining knowledge after encountering a specific situation. Innocence and experience is often practiced throughout the life of an individual. “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” by Flannery O’Connor, symbolizes innocence and experience well throughout the story starting with the main character who is a grandmother raised in the South. Following is the story “A & P” by John Updike, which characterizes a teenage boy that comes to realization words are powerful and to stand up for what is right. “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, is similar to the theme innocence and experience through the eyes of a hard headed young girl named Sylvia, living in poverty