Loss Of Innocence In To Kill A Mockingbird

It is astonishing how differently everyone thinks. Two people or groups may have very similar mindsets or perspectives on any given topic, but no two are ever exactly the same. Throughout the novel, Scout is one of the characters that learns this, and as the reader watches her gain a better understanding of the world, we also watch her grow and mature. Harper Lee utilizes characters, setting, and conflicts in order to magnify the significance of destroying innocence on coming of age in her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. One of the characters Harper Lee uses to demonstrate the significance of a loss of innocence on coming of age is the narrator, Scout. Just before Atticus announces to Alexandra, Calpurnia, Miss Maudie, and Scout that Tom

Jem goes through this same loss of innocence in the book, but reacts differently than Scout does to certain changes. In the chapter before the women spend time at the Finch home, Jem and Scout have a conversation about the type of people there are in the world and the distinctions between them all. Their conversation starts with Jem trying to comfort Scout after her conversation with Alexandra in which she calls Walter and the Cunninghams trash and tells Scout she is a a problem to Atticus. They are contemplating what types of people there are in the world and the way each type lives. Jem wonders aloud why, ”If they’re all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other, ”after Scout makes that statement that there is only one type of people in the world (304). He then tells Scout that, ”Boo Radley’s stayed shut up in the house all this time because he wants to stay inside,”(304). As he is beginning to recognize all the evil and wickedness in the world, he becomes aware that that is why Boo Radley never comes out. It’s not because anyone is holding him there; why would anyone want to go outside when there is all of

The Courthouse, ironically enough, is a place that represents injustice in Maycomb. It is also a factor in the children's new perspective on the world as they gain a new understanding of people and lose their innocence as they mature and go through these situations and have new experiences. At the courthouse, Scout is describing all of the different people she sees such as the, ”more affluent who chased their food with drugstore Coca-Cola and bulb-shaped soda glasses,” and the, ”Negroes who sat quietly and the Sun dining on sardines, crackers, and the more vivid flavors of Nehi Cola,” (214). Here, she recognizes the physical differences of the people and Maycomb as she loses a little more of her innocence as she points out that the Negroes sat in the sun whereas the Whites sat in the shade. This is significant because even here, when both parties are so close in proximity, they still try to be as segregated as possible; the Whites get to be more comfortable than the Negroes. In addition, inside the Courthouse the Negroes get worse seating than the Whites and the whole jury is made up of somewhat uneducated White men, who will obviously be completely biased. Scout refers to the seating for the Negroes in the Courthouse as the ‘colored balcony,’ which seems to