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Examples Of Innocence In To Kill A Mockingbird

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As we grow up and experience new things, we learn more about the world, as well as who and what is in it. We see that the world isn’t just our house and family and friends; there are issues, different views, and prejudice. In To Kill A Mockingbird, the reader sees Scout and Jem mature throughout the book, gradually losing their innocence. This can be seen in more than just To Kill A Mockingbird. Ex-child soldier Ishmael Beah can recall the parts of his childhood where there wasn’t a time to be innocent. As the kids see and experience more in the world, they lose their innocence. In the beginning of To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout and Jem are terrified of Arthur Radley. They would make rumors up about him because he never came out of his house, dubbing him “Boo Radley” …show more content…

In the beginning of the book, Jem was very much like Scout; innocent to prejudice and the problems in Maycomb County. As time passes, Scout notices a significant change in Jem. He became more mature and less fun in her eyes. One instance of Jem being very mature is when he’s watching Tom Robinson’s court case. When the judge was calling out the votes, Jem’s “hands were turning white from gripping the balcony rail, and his shoulders jerked as if each “guilty” were a separate stab between them” (pg. 282). All this time Jem thought that there was no way Tom was going to be deemed guilty by the jury, but as he was proven wrong it hurt him to listen to the prejudice of an innocent black man get proven guilty for something he didn’t do. The way Jem feels emotionally is shown physically in this sense. Each “guilty” from the jury is another reason for Jem to cringe because he knows that Tom isn’t guilty and he believes it isn’t right. The pain he feels when experiencing this prejudice is unlike anything he would’ve been able to comprehend in the beginning of the book because he lost his innocence and formed an understanding of why prejudice is a

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How the mockingbird is to kill a mockingbird represents innocence. Is it possible for a person to be guilty until proven innocent? In the book to kill a mockingbird, a woman named Scout retells her life during the great depression alongside her brother Jem and her father Atticus in a town called Maycomb. During the book, Atticus defends a black character named Tom Robinson that was accused of raping a young girl named mayella ewell and was convicted guilty even though it was shown that it would have been impossible but, due to the racism of the people in Maycomb, he was still convicted guilty.

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