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Scout's Innocence

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Recommended: To kill a mockingbird themes of innocence

“There is no courage but in innocence; no constancy but in an honest cause” (Thomas Southerne). Scout’s innocence, The Radley family, and Tom Robinson’s trial all convey the theme that innocence leads to courage. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee portrays the ways in which innocence leads to courage.
Harper Lee illuminates the fact that Scout’s innocence leads to her courage within her community. “‘That’s okay, ma’am, you’ll get to know all the county folks after a while.’ Scout is talking to her teacher about Walter Cunningham and his family when she says, ‘The Cunninghams never took anything they can’t pay back-no church baskets and no scrip stamps. They never took anything off of anybody, they get along on what they have. They don’t have much, but they get along on it’” (Lee 26). Scout tries …show more content…

After the town sheriff, Heck Tate, convinces Atticus that Bob Ewell fell on his knife, Atticus says to Scout: “‘Scout,’ he said, ‘Mr. Ewell fell on his knife. Can you possibly understand?... ‘Well, it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it’” (Lee 370)? This quote really shows how much Scout has grown since the beginning of the book. She has started to lose her innocence, which leads her to be able to understand more of what people mean even when they say something else. Scout realizes that her and Jem’s savior was indeed Boo Radley: “‘Hey Boo,’ I said” (Lee 362). Boo Radley’s innocence leads him to be courageous by saving Jem and Scout. Boo has watched Jem and Scout through their times of crisis and as they have grown up. “His mouth was slightly open, and he looked at Jem from head to foot. Boo’s hand came up, but he let it drop to his side...His hand came down lightly on Jem’s hair” (Lee 372). Scout describes Boo as he is reaching down to touch Jem. Boo’s innocence leads him to question whether or not he should ‘pet’ Jem. In the end, he decides to be courageous and stroke Jem’s

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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.” Little do they know that Boo Radley will play a huge part in their survival at the end of the book when the crazy Bob Ewell Attacks them and Boo Radley protected them, something that Jem and scout would’ve never imagined, But something that the reader could foreshadow. Due to Boo’s acts of kindness like when he returned Jem’s pants sowed after he got them caught on the barb wire fence while he was snooping and around and also the gifts he left in the knot of the tree that helped him build a deeper sentimental relationship with Jem and Scout even if the kids did not know it. Boo had built such a relationship with them that he had done something extremely courageous and protects Jem and scout from Bob

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Overtime, Scout realizes that they are just disrupting Boo, and decides to stop trying to lure him outside. She almost completely forgets about Boo, until he saves both her and Jem from Mr. Ewell who was attacking them. When Scout first saw Boo, she teared up, since she only fantasized about that very moment. Curiosity struck Scout and her

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In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout matures throughout the book as she matures her innocent nature is gradually lost and she realizes how senseless and brutal people can be. In the beginning she has still not seen any of the bad things people do in the world. Her innocence at is first shown when Dill asks Scout to marry him because they don’t now what marriage really is they both go along with it and say that they are married from then on. Another example of Scout’s innocence is when after she goes to school and gets in trouble she comes home and tells Atticus that she does not want to go to school anymore. She says that Burris Ewell only comes one day then goes home lie it would be a good thing to be a Ewell because you would not

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