Character Analysis: To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird
“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” said Miss Maudie to her six year old neighbor, Scout. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, killing a mockingbird is a symbol of the destruction of innocence. To Kill a Mockingbird is a memorable novel in American literature history. You may ask why this story is memorable. Because To Kill a Mockingbird is a story about human rights. Tom Robinson is an African American man, he is accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. Atticus defends him against the prosecutor, Mr.Gilmer.
Maycomb children believe he is a horrible person, due to the rumors spread about him and a trial he underwent as a teenager. It is implied during the story that Boo is a very lonely man who attempts to reach out to Jem and Scout for friendship, for instance leaving them small gifts and figures in a tree knothole. When Boo finally does come out, he has a good reason: Bob Ewell is trying to murder the Finch kids. The reader cannot see what happens in the scuffle, but at the end of it, Ewell is dead and Boo carries an unconscious Jem to the Finch house. Boo Radley's heroics in protecting the children from Bob Ewell are covered up by Sheriff Tate. This can be consider as a wise decision. As Tate notes, if word got out that Boo killed Ewell, Boo’s house would be inundated with gifts and visits, it’s a disaster for him due to his reclusive personality. Eventually, Jem understood Boo Radley’s unsociable personality after the Tom Robinson trial. “Scout, I think I'm beginning to understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time… it's because he wants to stay inside" (pg. 227). Having seen a sample of the horrible things their fellow townspeople can do, choosing to stay out of the mess of humanity doesn’t seem like such a strange choice. Boo Radley finally been accepted by
With the story progress, Jem lost his innocence gradually. The age that everyone will reach they mature and change from a child to an adult. Jem lost his innocence during the trial, when the ugly side of Maycomb was revealed to him. He began to understand the negative side of humanity. After the trial, Jem started to sob because he was unable to accept the guilty decision made by jury for Tom Robinson. Jem witnessed the entire process and how the jury ignored evidence that proved Tom Robinson was not guilty. The jury’s members based their votes on the race of Tom and declared him guilty. The bigotry of the jury upset Jem because he believe there is a justice under the law. Jem finally realize how unkind and prejudiced townspeople