To Kill A Mockingbird Loss Of Innocence Analysis

Innocence is the purity and the goodness of a child that is eventually outgrown and lost through tragic experiences. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the loss of innocence is displayed through the book in every aspect. Jem Finch’s Innocence is lost when a social outcast and rumored murderer named Boo Radley teaches him what it means to have compassion. After Jem got mad at Mrs.Dubose a bitter old woman and a morphine addict, Jem was forced to read to her every day out of this Jem learns what true courage is. Tom Robinson, an African-American man is accused of raping a young girl end is evidently innocent but it convicted and sent to death this is the last piece that tears down Jem’s innocence and his view of his hometown Maycomb.Harper Lee uses the loss of innocence to demonstrate how experiences with prejudices with race and social class cause children to mature.

After weeks of the children finding gifts in the knothole, they realize that the gifts were meant for them. The next day they wrote a note to the person giving them the gifts only to find Mr. Nathan Radley closing the hole. “When [they] went into the house [Scout] saw that he had been crying” (Lee 71). After thinking, Jem realizes that it had to be Boo leaving the gifts and that Nathan Radley didn't want Boo trying to communicate with anyone. This changes Jem’s thinking and matures him because he is now thinking about how life must be for Boo. This lesson of empathy impacts Jem abundantly teaching him that he has to put himself in other's