To Kill A Mockingbird Loss Of Innocence Analysis
“All things truly wicked start from innocence.” –Ernest Hemingway. The author of To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, uses the Mockingbird to symbolize innocence and the loss of innocence. To kill a mockingbird is to end innocence; she shows throughout the story that doing so is a sin. The author shows this transition through different life experience of the characters.
Harper begins the book with the characters as mockingbirds, innocent and pure. The story follows the slow end of their innocence as they mature. Scout is a 5 year old tomboy who has never had to experience evil, besides losing her mother at a young age. When Tom Robbinson’s case begins, she and Jem must grow up and learn the evil that plagues the world. As the story comes to a close, Scout shows that even though she has matured she still can see the hope in humanity by saying, ““Well, it’d be sort of like shootin‘ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?”(147). Scout is agreeing with Mr. Tate that hurting Boo would not be productive in this situation, even if he was the cause for Bob Ewell’s death. Scout is one of the many characters that loses their …show more content…
Tom was accused of raping and assaulting Mayella Ewell, when in truth is innocent. The town sins by incorrectly charging him and sentencing him to death. Mr. Underwood disapproves of the punishment, “He likened Tom’s death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children,” (128). Atticus tells Scout that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird; Scout was confused on why he would say that so she went to Miss Maudie. Miss Maudie explains, “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,”(49) Tom Robbinson follows that description very easily; there was no reason for him to be sentenced to death as he did not do any
Harper begins the book with the characters as mockingbirds, innocent and pure. The story follows the slow end of their innocence as they mature. Scout is a 5 year old tomboy who has never had to experience evil, besides losing her mother at a young age. When Tom Robbinson’s case begins, she and Jem must grow up and learn the evil that plagues the world. As the story comes to a close, Scout shows that even though she has matured she still can see the hope in humanity by saying, ““Well, it’d be sort of like shootin‘ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?”(147). Scout is agreeing with Mr. Tate that hurting Boo would not be productive in this situation, even if he was the cause for Bob Ewell’s death. Scout is one of the many characters that loses their …show more content…
Tom was accused of raping and assaulting Mayella Ewell, when in truth is innocent. The town sins by incorrectly charging him and sentencing him to death. Mr. Underwood disapproves of the punishment, “He likened Tom’s death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children,” (128). Atticus tells Scout that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird; Scout was confused on why he would say that so she went to Miss Maudie. Miss Maudie explains, “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,”(49) Tom Robbinson follows that description very easily; there was no reason for him to be sentenced to death as he did not do any