Loss Of Innocence In To Kill A Mockingbird

Children are shielded from the bad parts of life. It seems that’s part of being a parent; making sure your child keeps their youthful innocence, pushing away every bad thing and person as far away from them as possible. But when they’re exposed to the negative parts of life, it feels like all that effort put into protecting them was useless; all the subject avoiding, ear covering, word spelling, whispering so they don’t hear from all the way down the hall, it’s all for nothing. Every ounce of effort you put into guarding that pure child has disappeared. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird displays multiple examples as to how the sincerity of a child is stripped away from them because of new experiences life caused.When the reality of life is

But when Tom was announced guilty, he didn’t know what to think, except the people of Maycomb weren’t who he thought they were. “His face was streaked with angry tears as we made our way through the cheerful crowd. ‘It ain’t right’...” (284). Jem was in absolute shock about the jury’s conviction when he knew Robinson was innocent; it was clear as day in that boy’s eyes. “He leaped off the bed, grabbed me by the collar and shook me. ‘I never wanta hear about that courthouse ever again, ever, ever… Don’t you ever say one word to me about it again…’” (331). After months, Jem still couldn’t hear about the trial without getting angry, it was too awful a subject for him. Jem’s pure mind left the second he stepped out of that courthouse, everything he knew to be true was a

“‘Miss Gates said it was awful, Hitler doin’ like he does, she got real red in the face about it-’ ‘I think she would.’ ‘But-’ ‘Yes?’ ‘Nothing sir.’ I went away, not sure I could explain to Atticus what was on my mind…” (330). Scout was still trying to figure out how exactly Miss Gates’ statement about how America is a democracy and Germany is a dictatorship even though Jews and black people are basically treated the same and it’s bad what’s happening to the Jews but not black people. “‘I heard her say it’s time somebody taught ‘em a lesson, they were gettin’ way above themselves, an the next thing they think they can do is marry us’” (331). Scout noticed how hypocritical her teacher was being and wanted to figure out what the difference was between Jews being treated unfairly and black