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Development Of Theme Through Characters In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

727 Words3 Pages

Miley Schill
Mrs.Milano
English 9 - period 4
14 April 2023
Development of Theme Through Characters in To Kill a Mockingbird Essay???
“For me the idea of losing one’s innocence has no sexual connotations. It’s more about how our outlook changes” (https://moonwalkingtojoy.com). This shows how many of the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird lose their innocence as they experience things that change their future. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is about racial inequality and how people lose their innocence too early. The story is told in a young girl's life and when her father has to represent an African American in court she is taught that people are treated differently just because of their race. In the novel the protagonist’s, …show more content…

The novel reads, “A jury never looks at a defendant it has convicted, and when this jury came in, not one of them looked at Tom Robinson '' (Lee 282). This shows that Tom’s innocence is taken away from him when he is convicted by the jury. This also shows how he helps develop the theme because he lost his innocence too early by being sent to jail and losing his life later in the story. All because he was falsely accused and convicted he lost his innocence and his …show more content…

The trial makes him lose his innocence because the trial opened his eyes to the maltreatment of other races, and once he witnesses this he can never go back to his naive thoughts that everyone is treated fairly and equally. The book reads, “I don't care one speck. It ain't right, somehow it ain't right to do 'em that way. Hasn't anybody got any business talkin' like that- it just makes me sick” (Lee 266). This shows that Dill thinks it is shameful the way Tom is treated and it changes Dill’s outlook on life because he perceives that not everyone is treated the same and people discriminate against others. This makes him lose his innocence because now he can never go back to thinking everything is fine and everyone is treated

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“There’s something in our world that make men lose their heads – they couldn’t be fair if they tried the white men always win” (pg. 220) in the 1930s racism at the time was powerful and strong the connection it had with people made a hatred emotion towards Tom, the white men will always win. Despite all the evidence that prove Tom is innocent, people still view him as guilty. Tom Robinson never committed a crime he is as innocent as a mockingbird, if racism was not a big deal as it was Tom would be a free man. Secondly, even when Tom is on trial at a chance he might die, he still shows kindness and compassion like a mockingbird. During the trial, Tom was called up by Atticus to give his side of the story.

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I am reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and I am on page 304. So far this book is about the Tom Robinson trial and how Scout, Jem, and Dill react. Even with all of the evidence pointing towards Tom being innocent, he was convicted of rape and sent to prison. In this journal I will be characterizing and predicting. Tom Robinson is compassionate and realistic.

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In chapter 21, Jem, Dill, and Scout go to the courthouse to watch the trial. They watch the whole trial from the colored section. While jury was being polled, Scout notices something about Jem, “Judge Taylor was polling the jury: 'Guilty...guilty...guilty...guilty...' I peeked at Jem: his hands were white from gripping the balcony rail, and his shoulders jerked as if each "guilty" was a separate stab between them,” (240). This shows Jems loss of innocence because he knew that Tom wasn’t guilty, he understood that yes he would probably be convicted.

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He realizes that not everyone is morally just and that people often only see skin deep. Before the trial, Dill thought that everybody was treated equally and politely, but when exposed to the black community and how they were treated by the white people, his innocence to racism rapidly faded to shreds. Experience taught him that racism is an awful and grim occurrence in our society that would most likely never go

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The case shows Tom’s innocence, but also his loss of it. After the case and Tom is proven guilty, he tries to escape and ends up getting himself killed, Tom’s purity is lost in this event. Even though Atticus had evidence that Tom was not guilty, the prejudice and misconduct is shown, even though Tom was

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Maturing is something everyone goes through in life whether you go through it early or a little later in life. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows a lot about maturing. Growing up in a small town in Maycomb, Alabama where life was a lot more different from today, you mature much different and in different ways. Jem is one person who matures through the whole story and makes realizations about people around him, including his dad, Tom Robinson, and Mrs. Dubose. Jem goes into the story thinking his dad is just some old man but as he gets older, he realizes there is more to his dad.

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The jury symbolizes the effect of racism. Tom had a lot of evidence to prove that he is innocent, however because of the stereotypes against people of his color the jury decision was that he was guilty. Tom didn’t really have a chance since it was two white folks against him. If Tom had not been black he most likely would have been proven innocent, however since he is black the jury’s opinion was changed. The opinions of people are changed based on little things

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Sullivan’s Thought Paper Sullivan’s Thought Paper In the article “Thought” was written by Louis H. Sullivan, he expresses his thoughts on creative thinking. One of Sullivan’s main points is that words are only useful when people communicate with others by writing or talking to them, but not when they communicate by using music, paintings, sculptures, and gestures among others. He says words are inefficient, just by the fact that they slow down the thinking process. Sullivan also makes the claim that most of the times when a person is thinking he is not really thinking creatively, he is using another person’s thoughts.

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The ‘mockingbird’ of the story symbolizes several different types of innocence through different characters. One of the ‘mockingbird’ innocence types is displayed by Tom Robinson. During the closing statements in the courtroom (232), Atticus states that “the defendant is not guilty, but someone in this courtroom is.” The quote shows that Tom’s ‘mockingbird’ innocence is the innocence of not being guilty.

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The Universal Loss of Innocence As children, we are often protected from the outside world, as we should be. As a human race, we have the instinct to protect our young and keep them from any kind of harm that could pose a threat. Such young ears or eyes shouldn’t be exposed to something as harsh and cruel as the society we live in both today or 60 years ago. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, you see the same concept exercised in the small town of Maycomb with Jem, Scout, and Dill. As honest and open as Atticus is, he knows when something should be bent to a more positive idea or when to not inform them of something, but as they age throughout the story, the blatantly obvious cruelties of the world get harder and harder to mask or filter out.

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He has shown continuously to be able to perceive things that others couldn’t. This is no different from the Tom Robinson court trial. Starting from chapter 17, Jem watches the trial take positive and negative turns, ultimately culminating in an undesirable ending. However, his reaction differed from that of Scout’s. As the trial progresses, Dill started to cry at the treatment Tom Robinson received from Mr. Gilmer, but Scout brushed him off saying, “”Dill that’s his job.

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Again, this quote shows the importance of the trial, and specifically the amount riding on the verdict. The Tom Robinson trial is the most important event in the book because of the affect it has on the characters in the story and the theme it

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To Kill a Mockingbird is a book mainly about the coexistence of good and evil. The book stresses and emphasizes on the exploration of moral nature in humans. There are many themes in this novel including courage, innocence, racism, femininity, etc. However the most prevalent theme in the book is innocence. Not just innocence in itself but the danger and harm evil poses to the innocent.

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“The hardest part of growing up is letting go of what we are used to and moving on to something you are not”-Paul Walker Growing up is one of the hardest, as well as one of the most important parts in life. Growing up should be fun, but in Scouts case learning about the cruelty and the reality she is living in is no fun. As the novel advances Scout experiences various emotional changes because of different events that take place. She starts to realize the unfairness that exists between different races and the discrimination that is rounding at the time.

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