Patrick Rothful once addressed the topic of childhood innocence, when he said, “When we are children, we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future, is the day we leave our childhood behind”. Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, Jean Louis Finch, with a nickname of Scout, and Jem, her older and more experienced brother, are beginning to leave their childhood innocence behind. As they grow older, they learn that not everything is just in Maycomb County. Harper Lee uses Scout’s narration and Tom Robinson’s trial to portray how children lose their innocence with coming of age.
In a child’s mind, everything is rainbows and butterflies. As a child starts to grow older, this gumdrop and lollipop mindset fades away to a reality of what is really going on. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee uses Scout’s narration to show that Jem is becoming more and more aware of what is happening, and losing his innocence. This is especially the case as Jem begins to notice who is leaving the “presents” in the
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Boo Radley. This was probably one of the most important realizations of the whole book. Scout stands up on Boo’s porch, and sees what Boo has been seeing through her whole entire lifetime. She then realizes that this all of this time, he was like a second “father” to them. Watching over them, silently. Scout lost a lost a little bit of innocence through her own narration. She touchingly thinks to herself, “Winter, and a man walked into the street, dropped his glasses, and shot a dog. [...] Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them.” (Lee 237). This quote expresses how she realized what Boo has been giving them all throughout her childhood. She is growing up, and losing her grasp of what she used to me. A small, innocent little