Innocence In Nothing Gold Can Stay By Harper Lee

The concept of innocence is characterized by its fleeting and ephemeral nature. Sooner or later it must be replaced by a state of maturity and understanding. In Robert Frost’s Nothing Gold Can Stay and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (ch. 16), both writers examine the growth from innocence to understanding. Within both Nothing Gold Can Stay and chapter 15 of To Kill a Mockingbird, the innocence of the world is depicted through their respective subjects: nature and Atticus. The poem posits that gold, representing purity, can’t stay forever because it is, by its own virtue, temporary. It starts by stating that “nature’s first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold,” and “her early leaf’s a flower; but only so an hour.” These lines try

Atticus becomes a representation of innocence in Maycomb which must fade to come to grips with the truth. At the start of the chapter, when Sheriff Tate says he can’t promise that there won’t be any gang violence after transporting Tom Robinson to the county jail, Atticus responds saying “Don’t be foolish, Heck… This is Maycomb.” And when Jem asks about gangs in Maycomb, Atticus responds in kind: “we don’t have mobs and that nonsense in Maycomb.” However, when he stands guard outside of the jail the night after Tom is put in the county jail, a mob comes driving up to the building. “Men got out of the cars. Shadows became substance as the lights revealed solid shapes moving towards the jail door.” These quotes show that Atticus initially chooses to make excuses to Jem and himself but that eventually the innocence in him must be taken

While Nothing Gold Can Stay is frank about the ephemeral essence of purity, To Kill a Mockingbird’s Atticus must be tested in order to make the realization. In his poem, Frost writes with a bleak tone to be frank about the inevitability of the loss of innocence. He states very plainly that “leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, so dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.” The matter-of-fact fashion in which Frost explains the evanescence of innocence indicates that he sees very clearly its fleeting nature. Unlike in Frost’s poem, Harper Lee (through Atticus) addresses the loss of innocence in a much different way. Atticus is in a way not only faced with the challenge of confronting reality through the loss of his innocence but also his deeply-rooted ignorance. To gain understanding and rid himself of ignorance, Lee shows how he tackles his above-mentioned denial of mobs existing in Maycomb through a few symbols. She writes that “Jem and I were settling down to a routine evening, when Atticus did something that interested us: he came into the living-room carrying a long electrical extension cord. There was a light bulb on the end.” Atticus then proceeds to go to the jail, symbolizing that he is about to shed light on the reality of Maycomb’s darker truths. Just before being accosted by the mob, Lee once again reiterates