Examples Of Innocence In To Kill A Mockingbird

Paragraph One: Innocence

Innocence can be corrupted by the influences and views of prejudice. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee can communicate her own ideas of prejudice shown through the point of views of both Jem and Scout, in which the audience can notice the unfair and marginalization of others that can corrupt innocent minds into perceiving prejudice as right. This view can be explained through the point of view of Jem because his innocence has been altered between observing the unlawful rape case of Tom Robinson, in which he starts to understand the function of society, by using an indicative tone and listing in the statement, “There’s four kind of folks in the world. There’s the ordinary kind like us and the neighbours,

As Scout being younger is still innocence to the views of the world. This shows the clear segregation of society that outlines Maycomb’s social hierarchy and Harper Lee’s need to rid society of all forms of prejudice. In the statement, “I’ll tell you why, because he-is-trash, that’s why you can’t play with him,” the dialogue Aunt Alexander uses in response to Scout asking if she can play with Walter Cunningham Junior, provides evidence that no one is born into life with equality, yet Harper Lee wants the audience to understand that we all are equal. Lee uses the dashes in the word “trash” to emphasis her point and clearly make the negative connotations stand out in this statement, to imply Aunt Alexander’s different perspective and lack of innocence in comparison to Jem and Scouts differing

The audience is given a clearer view through this dialogue because it shows that despite Walter being a young white boy, he too is a subject of minority for the sole reason of his family’s social and economic status among society, in which he is portrayed by society as lesser than Scout and is not privileged enough to be able to play with her. Harper Lee shows the audience this view on prejudice in hopes to convey that having the same skin colour and social status does not determine a person as equal to those of higher importance within society. Prejudice and the child-like innocence of Scout is described through the juxtaposition in the statement, “That boy’s not trash Jem. He ain’t like the Ewell’s.” Harper Lee uses her character Scout to convey that society will always judge between one another, in which this is evident when Scout contrasts between the Cunningham’s and the Ewell’s social status because despite that Scout is young her innocence hasn’t been manipulated by the prejudice thoughts of adults, but she too can judge and shape her own opinions of others within society. Therefore, prejudice can challenge and impact