To Kill a Mockingbird: Innocence

A songbirds melody can elevate happiness in anyone, as can the smiling face of a child. The mockingbird sings for the sake of singing, and an complimentary child possesses an inborn joyfulness, as essential as instinct. Yet a mockingbirds song dies as easily as the whiteness of a child. In Harper Lees To shoot down a Mockingbird, Scout and Jem are portrayed as innocents, uncorrupted by our gentle piece of prepossess and racism. Their serviceman is simple, sensible, a childs world.However, three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus, are consumed by the arrest and eventual outpouring of a young black man accused of raping a washcloth woman. By the end of the novel, their world has expanded to enclose the irrational genius of humans. Jem and Scouts growing up is portrayed by a series of events that shatters their innocence as easily as a mockingbird can be silenced.Lee uses a combination of insignificant and profound events t he trial of Tom Robinson, Walter Cunningham, and their relationship with hoot Radley to develop and display the childrens growth in maturity. adept of the first cracks in Scouts armour of naivete occurs collectible to the fact that she speaks her mind. On Scouts first day of prepare Scout tries to explain to her teacher that she is embarrassing Walter Cunningham by offering him something that he will non be able to pay back. Scout realizes that because her teacher is not a local, she will not know that about the Cunninghams, alone Scouts explanation gets her into trouble.When Scout explains Walters one of the Cunninghams, (26), she was not trying to be insulting, but Miss Caroline mistakes her frank and innocent explanation as arrogance or rudeness and punishes her for it. Scouts perception of the world and her classmates is not save marred by the favorable divisions that adults see. When Scout has Walter over for a repast Scout really does insult Walter this time as she que stions the way he eats by saying But hes gone and drowned his dinner in syrup (32) and makes him feel self-conscious.She is not doing it intentionally, she is just unmated because she has never seen heap who eat that way. She is too young to visualise the accessible graces of Southern hospitality that dictate that you are always to make people feel at home and welcome no matter how extraordinary their habits may be. Scout and Jem are surrounded by racism and prejudice as children, but until they get on with , they do not see it for what it is, until something enormously, apparently wrong occurs close to home. At first Scout does not understand what is wrong and keeps asking Jem questions about what is happening. speckle Atticus is asking questions directed to Mayella, easy but surely she could see the pattern of Atticus questions (244). Although this shows that Scouts understanding about her father has improved, she is still oblivious to the deeper meaning of the trial. Whi le Jem is explaining to Dill, Scout supposes it is the finer points of the trial (252). With Jem being able to do this, this proves that Jem has matured greatly since the beginning. But what surprised Scout and blew Jem away was the obvious manginess of the verdict.When Jem states You just cant convict a man on evidence like that, proves that Jem realizes the injustice that Tom Robinson faced (295). Atticus has screen Scout and her brother from any outward prejudice against blacks. However, even he could not keep out the thought that coloured were not quite the same. Racism has been so deeply ingrained that Scout didnt realize its posture and results until that tragedy opened her eyes. As a result, racism and its effects entered the ever-expanding world of the Finch children.Because of the perspective of childhood innocence, Boo Radley is disposed(p) no identity unconnected from the youthful superstitions that surround him, and it is these superstitions that leave Jem and Scou t oblivious to the fact that Boo just wants to protect them. Scout at first describes Boo as a malevolent phantom, (10) while Jem illustrates him as a six-and-a-half feet tall man that dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch (16). With these expressions they demonstrated how innocent the children are.After the children have found gifts inside a knot hole in a tree, their father finds out about their game. When Atticus witnesses his children release a note in the hole, he believes his children are causing disability so he tells them to stop tormenting the man (65). When Atticus says, You just told me, Jem did not realize that without actually saying that they were playing the Boo Radley game he still admitted to his father that that is what they were doing. Originally portrayed as a crank and a lunatic, Boo Radley continues to gain the sympathy of the children.When Nathan Radley closes the hole, Scout sees it as no more gifts, but Jem takes it more to heart. Nathan Radl ey claims that the trees dying (83) so Jem asks his father where he says that the tree is fine. When Jem realizes that Nathan had just cut off their connection, he was crying, (84). It is when Scout and Jem need saving that Scout understands that Boo was just just looking out for them. While saying Hey Boo in person, this shows how mature Scout has gotten during the three years (362).Scout losses her innocence when she realizes that Boo Radley has given so much to them- gifts in the tree, a warm blanket on a cold night, folded up pants on a environ and their LIVES, but they have never repaid him. As if they were the harmless songbirds, the childrens innocence is tattered by these events. Through their interactions with Walter, Toms trial and Boo Radley social prejudice, racism, mobs, and social exceptions are now a part of their world. The naivete and laurels have been replaced by the knowledge of human nature and the corruption of our world. The world is no longer simple, and t he mockingbird is dead.