How Does Harper Lee Present The Loss Of Innocence In To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee and set in the early 1930s, follows through the young eyes Scout, Jem and Dill and their development throughout the book. The book reflects the dominant view of racism, through the use of the characters who see the world through innocent eyes. Through the use of characterisation Harper lee invites the reader to view Scout, Jem and Dills loss of innocence through the racist beliefs of the 1930. Throughout the novel Scout gradually loses her childhood innocence as she encounters life's many injustices. Jem loses his innocence by realising the racist stereotypes of the people in Maycomb and Dill loses his care free attitude by seeing how Maycomb treat Tom Robinson.

Jem loses his innocence throughout

Scout is seen as an innocent young girl at the start but gradually turns more into a woman by the end after she sees how unfair life is. One of the injustices that was clear in the novel was “To tell you the truth miss Jean Louise, Helens finding it hard to get work these days (pg136).” This adds to the theme of racism which is shown throughout the novel. The character Helen is Tom Robinsons wife and this is telling us that because Tom was accused of rape by Bob Ewell, she is struggling to find work. Scout does not understand that Toms family will be affected by him being accused of raping Mayella this shows her cluelessness and innocence towards racist situations. This positions the reader to think that Tom is already seen as the villain by all the white people of Maycomb and his family is feeling the effects of this. Scout again loses her innocence when she realises that Tom Robinson was shot dead at the Enfield prison. “But I found myself shaking and couldn’t stop(pg261).” Imagery is evident here with Scout never interacting with someone who was shot and this corrupts her mind making her shake and lose her innocence. Toms’ death affects Scout substantially as he realises that the world is injustice to people of colour. Scout loses her innocence drastically throughout the book with us seeing that she is affected by the racist situations throughout the

Dill’s innocence is slowly lost throughout the whole Tom Robinson trial. After the Trial Dill is upset and talking to Scout about the trial, this is when Mr Dolphus Raymond comes out from behind the tree and talks to them “Things haven’t caught up with this one’s instinct yet. Let him get a little older and he won’t get sick and cry Maybe things’ll strike him as being- not quite right, says, but he won’t cry, not when he gets a few years on him” (pg222)”. This dialogue explains that dill is to innocent to see why Dolphus has been drinking Coca- Cola instead of beer this whole time. Dill’s innocence is lot with him realising that Tom Robinsons case was not fair. "The way that man called him ‘boy’ all the time an‘ sneered at him, an’ looked around at the jury every time he answered (pg219). Dills thoughts on Tom Robinsons case are expressed through diction. Dill loses his innocence by realising that Bob Ewell is unfair to Tom and that just because he is a person of colour does not mean he should be treated this way. The author is pictured to see that Dill doesn’t understand why everyone is against Tom. Overall dills loss of innocence is conveyed through his understanding of racism during Tom Robinsons