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Examples Of Innocence In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Many themes can be found in the book To Kill A Mockingbird. The many older, wiser characters that have a lot of knowledge to offer make the most important theme in this story: innocence vs experience. The character that offers the most knowledge to the children is Atticus. Secondly, there is Calpurnia, who’s been helping to raise these kids their whole life. There are also many town’s people who have offered their wisdom to Scout and Jem. All of these people have helped to offer their wisdom to these kids, but the most common advice-giver is Atticus. Atticus has taught Scout and Jem a lot throughout their lives. He is a big reason why this book has to do with innocence vs experience. For example, when Atticus tries to relay the message from Aunt Alexandra to Scout and Jem that they are Finches and that “[they] should try to live up to [their] name” (Lee, 177), she does not understand what she is doing wrong. Atticus then decides to tell her to never mind it. This shows that he has the experience to know to let her keep being who she is, he has more experience with Scout and Jem than Aunt Alexandra to know that there is no point in trying to change them. This is why Atticus is a big example as to why this book contains a lot of innocence vs experience, another character that had a big role in raising the kids is Calpurnia. …show more content…

Cal has much more experience than these kids and she has taught them so much. For example, when the kids do not understand why she “talks black” around the black people at her church. Cal has the experience to explain there is “nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language” (Lee 167). Therefore, Calpurnia has a lot of advice and wisdom to teach these kids. This means that she has a lot of experience to offer them. Cal is another example of Innocence vs Experience, however, Calpurnia and Atticus aren’t the only two in town who’ve taught the children important

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For example, in the scene where Calpurnia finds out where the children are the day of the trial and walks into the court room to speak to Atticus then almost drags the children out, shows on Atticus’ part care for not wanting them there witnessing the trial, and on Calpurnia’s part being so furious that they disobeyed an order because she wants them to be able to understand why they were supposed to stay home. Calpurnia doesn’t remain as calm as Atticus when the children misbehave and doesn’t have as many words of wisdom, but she sure does want what’s best for the children. For example, when she takes the children to her church one Sunday, she knows to dress them in their very best, because the people there will already not accept white children, but if they are dressed poorly, they will shun them, and Calpurnia, entirely. This shows that she knows not to make them afraid of socializing with African-Americans, but she knows to make sure they know to be careful, because not everyone is as accepting of the other race as they are. She may not be able to put them in the right path all the time, but she sure can knock them off the wrong path when she sees them going down

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