Innocence Is Bliss Growing up as children, people did not see the world as it really is. But as they got older they realized it was not as good a place as we took it to be. In Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”, this is the case for little Scout and Jem Finch. As they grow up in small town Maycomb, Alabama, they experience many things children should not experience, like Tom Robinson, a black man who is on trial for a crime he did not commit simply because of the color of his skin. Also, the character of Bob Ewell is a terrible man. These things cause them to lose their innocence. Through Jem and Scout’s experiences with racially-charged issues in their home town, Tom Robinson’s court case, and Bob Ewell, Harper Lee suggests that the tribulations of life cause children to lose their innocence. …show more content…
For Tom Robinson’s court case, many people were in attendance, including Jem and Scout. They should not have been and Calpurnia says, “...the very idea, you children listenin’ to all that! Ain’t fittin’ for children to hear… ” (Lee 176). Harper Lee has Calpurnia say this because the trial discusses and talks about many things that are not fit for children. They are not fit for children because they expose them to things that are inappropriate for their age. So, Harper Lee uses this trial because it has many elements to it that are inappropriate for children, which therefore can destroy their