Examples Of Loss Of Innocence In To Kill A Mockingbird

Loss of innocence is when someone comes to a realization through an event that alters their perception and understanding of reality. The novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is set in the small town of Maycomb in the 1930s, also known as the Great Depression. Many characters play a specific role in the novel, for instance, Boo Radley plays a mysterious character that scares children unintentionally because of events in the past. Atticus Finch, who is a white lawyer, becomes well-known to the black activists in the community because he takes on the case of Tom Robison, a black person accused of raping a white woman. The aftermath of taking the case was sizable. Many white people, including the Ewell family who files the original case against

When Scout and Jem see Dill from across their fence, he tells them that he does not have a dad and that therefore he is staying at his aunt's house for the summer. After Dill tells Scout and Jem about the dad issue in a way that only Jem understands, Scout questions it, “‘Then if he’s not dead you’ve got one, haven’t you?’ Dill blushed and Jem told me to hush, a sure sign that Dill had been studied and found acceptable”(8). Dill loses the capability to do certain things because he does not have a dad, but is open about it, meaning that he could have never truly felt a dad’s love and meaningless. Dill loses his innocence because the feelings displayed correspond with how open he is with the question, and shows how he wants a father badly but does not know what he truly is asking for. Dill escapes from his home, going on a dangerous adventure to Scout's house. After dinner, he climbs into bed with Scout who curiously asks questions about why he left. After the long day Dill had, he complies with Scout and says, “That wasn’t it, he—they just wasn’t interested in me.” and “Well, they stayed gone all the time, and when they were home, even, they’d get off in a room by themselves”(161). Any child at a young age leaving a home that presents stable food, shelter, and water can not be for many reasons. After the departure, they have to survive and live on their own. Children are never supposed to live on their own in any circumstances because of the high probability of being taken or seeing something bad. Dill ran away from home because the family disappointed him, which consequently, made him lose his innocence because he has to overcome the standard thought process of a child. For example, every child thinks that they own the world and get what they want, and the parents agree to keep a happy mind