ipl-logo

Loss Of Innocence In To Kill A Mockingbird

830 Words4 Pages

In the Southern Gothic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows how each character can be innocent through different moments throughout the novel. The story tells of a little girl named Scout, who meets new people and learns how to be mature with all of the challenges she faces. Throughout the novel, she grows older and realizes that trusting other peoples’ words can hurt her in the long run. In To Kill a Mockingbird, characters’ actions illustrate how people mature as they grow. Harper Lee teaches Scout innocence throughout the novel. Scout was racing past the Radley house when a tree caught her eye. In the tree was a piece of gum,“[Scouts] first impulse was to get it into [her] mouth as quickly as possible” (Lee 37). Scout displays …show more content…

Tom was explaining what he had said and what he did to the jury when he said, “Mr.Finch, I tried. I tried to ‘thout bein’ ugly to her. I didn't wanta be ugly, I didn’t wanta push her or nothin’” (Lee 221). Tom Robinson clarifies his innocence when he tries to prove that he did not touch Mayella. Because of his race, everyone is trying to blame him for something he did not do. Lee provides this evidence in the novel to teach Tom Robinson that not everything in life goes your way. Which is going to influence the jury to choose a non-colored person. Atticus was leaving the post office when Mr.Ewell approached him and Atticus said, “Nothing happened. We’re scared for you, and we think you oughta do something about him” (Lee 249). Tom proves his innocence by not laying his hand on anyone else. When Tom uses his innocence on the good things, everyone else takes advantage of him and uses it against him. Lee conveys this message to show Tom that people in Maycomb can use things against you, no matter how innocent you are, which can hurt you. Tom Robinson and Atticus’ fight to prove that Toms’ innocence is the truth in doing so Lee shows that everyones’ opinion on each other can cause many different

Show More
Related
961 Words | 4 Pages

Jean Louise Finch (Scout) is a captivating narrator who compels the reader to listen to the story through her personality. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the author, Harper Lee, uses narration, dialogue, and setting to unravel Scout’s courageous, touchy, and rather inquisitive nature in an inventive and thrilling way. In order to adequately understand Scout as a character, the reader must look deeper to look into her mind rather than skimming the first layer. “‘You never really know a person until you consider things from his point of view...’” (Harper Lee 39).

Read More
992 Words | 4 Pages

Not an old Uncle, but a strong young Negro man. No code mattered to her before she broke it, but it came crashing down on her afterwards.”(Lee 272). Therefore, Atticus proves to the court with the evidence that Tom was not Guilty and Mayella Ewell tried to kiss Tom, and when Bob Ewell saw this he beat her and blamed it on Tom Robinson. “Our courts have their faults, as does any human institution, but in this country our courts are the great levellers, and in our courts all men are created equal” (Lee 273-274). Instead the court does not want people to hate them so they say that Tom was guilty.

Read More
544 Words | 3 Pages

The theme of the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is, all children experience a loss of innocence at some point in their youth. When a child loses their innocence they realize that the world was not as they thought is was. Jem and Scout Finch experience a loss of innocence after finding out that Boo Radley isn’t a “Malevolent Phantom”. Jem’s thought of Boo being a “Malevolent Phantom” emerges on (page 13) when he portrays Boo like this to Scout, "Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained -- if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.

Read More
1201 Words | 5 Pages

Tom in the book is a black man living in Maycomb, accused of raping a girl named Mayella Ewell, and Atticus Finch is the lawyer who protected him during his court case. Tom was innocent and everyone knew he did not do what he was accused of, but since he was black he was found guilty and went to prison, but ended up dying during his time in jail. It states in chapter 22 of To Kill a Mockingbird, “‘Guilty.guilty.guilty.guilty.’ I peeked at Jem: his hands were white from gripping the balcony rail.” To elaborate, Tom Robinson was accused of raping a girl named Mayella, but he was innocent and he never hurt her.

Read More
588 Words | 3 Pages

In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird we examine many particular characters, all in which portray a variety of attributes and personalities that are incredibly interesting. Some stick to a pricklier demeanor, while others prefer to stay soft-hearted. In this case we’re looking at the innocent side of Maycomb County, and who specifically flutters around without sin. The mockingbird is Tom Robinson.

Read More
1157 Words | 5 Pages

The courtroom was in question if he was guilty or not for the raping of Mayella Ewell. Despite the lack of evidence and inconsistencies among the witnesses, Tom was found guilty because of his race. “ A jury never looks at a defendant it has convicted, and when this jury came in, not one of them looked at Tom Robinson” (pg 210). What was interesting is that Atticus Finch was able to use evidence to justify Tom's innocence. For example, when Tom is over at the Ewells household, he was trying to help Mayella

Read More
571 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the all-encompassing theme of the narrative, loss of innocence, through several of the characters as a means of illustrating the innocence found in all that can be instantly gone by an earth-shattering event. Loss of innocence is found throughout “Scout” Finch, “Jem” Finch, and Tom Robinson. Scout can best be described as an outgoing, strong willed young girl with fists to match. With no inherent desire to dress or remotely act lady like, (“I felt the starched walls of a pink cotton penitentiary closing in on me”) ( Lee 136) ,as evidenced that she shuns her real name, Jean Louise, and instead prefers to use her more tomboyish name, Scout.

Read More
1336 Words | 6 Pages

Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, and Pulitzer Prize winner uses her book as a way to write about her own life growing up. Sometimes a sleepy town in Maycomb County has more to the story. Jem and Scout Finch learn this through Atticus’s acts of bravery and by losing their innocence through the Tom Robinson trial. Throughout the book Harper Lee uses many themes including courage, loss of innocence, and walking in someone else’s shoes.

Read More
1168 Words | 5 Pages

“Tom Robinson’s a colored man, Jem. No jury in this part of the world’s going to say, “We think you're guilty, but not very,’ on a charge like that. It was either a straight acquittal or nothing.” - Atticus pg. 294.

Read More
855 Words | 4 Pages

Scout experiences challenges that embody the culture of the time. Because Scout learns that the judgment of others are often incorrect and misguided, Scout is also the protagonist in the story “How to kill a mockingbird” she is a young girl growing up in Maycomb, Alabama, during the 1930s. Scout is intelligent, curious, and fiercely independent, with a strong sense of justice and a desire to understand the world around her. Despite the many challenges she faces as a young girl in a deeply divided and prejudiced society, Scout remains determined to stand up for what she believes is right, even when it means going against the norms of her community. Through her eyes, we see the struggles and triumphs of a young girl coming of age in a world that

Read More
1374 Words | 6 Pages

Throughout life, particularly childhood we learn many lessons about ourselves and others. The book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee reflects this with its many important themes. All through the book Scout grows and finds out more about many parts of her life and the lives of those around her. As we are reading from Scout’s perspective, while we read the book we can see that many of the things Scout learns are things that will continue to be significant themes her whole life. Though there are lots of lessons, there is one theme that is more relevant to the period of her life depicted in the book.

Read More
931 Words | 4 Pages

Imagine a story in which a character starts out blinded to the reality of his/her surroundings, he/she goes through a life-changing event, then he/she ends up realizing the truth about the reality. Lee appoints this baseline structure in her Bildungsroman To Kill a Mockingbird to pave the story of Scout, a second grader, whose father is appointed to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, who is wrongly prejudiced of committing a heinous crime. Scout has a playful beginning, when she aims to make her neighbor Boo show himself, but later, while and after witnessing the aforementioned man's trial, Scout learns the truth about the social motives of the world, both written and unwritten. While doing so, Scout matures, but at a major cost. To emphasize

Read More
683 Words | 3 Pages

Social class and sexism take a major part in the lives of the people of Maycomb and affect the way they treat each other. Tom Robinson, a young man accused of a crime because of his race, is a main example of the blindness to prejudice in this novel. Throughout the novel the author discusses the issue of racism and its effects on people. When Atticus Finch took on defending Tom in court, people told him that he would lose the case because of Tom's race. Atticus was upset over the fact that the courts were biased, no matter how much evidence shows that they were innocent.

Read More
988 Words | 4 Pages

Savannah Smith Mrs Rollins Honours English 9 09 March 2023 The Loss of Innocence in To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee’s historical fiction novel To Kill a Mockingbird follows a young girl by the name of Scout Finch as she navigates childhood alongside her older adolescent brother, Jem. The story takes place in a small town in southern Alabama called Maycomb during the Great Depression. Atticus, a lawyer and the children's father, is created by Lee to be both a role model and a teacher. Atticus highlights the importance of understanding a person by “stand[ing] in his shoes and walk[ing] around in them”(321) whilst encouraging level-headedness.

Read More
997 Words | 4 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a well-known novel about Jean Louise Finch, a woman who is reminiscing about her childhood days in the Southern town of Maycomb and the several events that took place there. Lee uses the literary device of theme throughout most of the story in order to get her message across to the readers. A story ’s theme is it’s main idea or underlying meaning.

Read More

More about Loss Of Innocence In To Kill A Mockingbird

Open Document