To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird
Define innocence, the state, quality, or fact of being innocent of a crime or offense. :blamelessness. Some children have been able to grasp on to their innocence; they are able to see what's wrong and right besides the color of an accused victims skin. Harper Lee made three child characters, whom all betray the trait of innocence: Scout, Dill, and Jem. The theme of To Kill a Mockingbird is growing up is hard when children lose their innocence.
Harper Lee created Scout, a young character. The story was from her point of view. Scout was designed to tell the story, To Kill a Mockingbird for exactly how it was. Lee didn’t want any racist views; she wanted an innocent view. Scout asks Atticus, “Then why Cecil say you defended niggers? He made it sound like you were runnin’ a still.” Atticus replies, ”I'm simply defending a negro”(Lee75) Scout is unable to blame an innocent man because she is raised properly. She is taught to be fair. She is taught to be respectful and put aside the shade of a persons skin.“Were making a step-its just a baby-step; but its a step” (Lee216), Scout says this after the Tom Robinson case, she understands the jury’s mind was opaque. The jury was unable to look past the color of Tom’s skin and sent him to jail. Although, she is aware that this case has opened a few eyes,especially a few white’s eyes. Some other whites have observed racism impacting Maycomb and the decisions of Maycomb. Real eyes, realize, real lies. Dill, a boy about 10 years old from Michigan, gets attached to the Tom Robinson case. “The way that man called him ‘boy’ all the time an‘ sneered at him, an’ looked around at the jury every time he answered—” Scout answers, "Well, Dill, after all he’s just a Nigger” Dill replied, ‘I don’t care one speck-it ain’t right, somehow it ain’t right to do ‘em that way. Hasn’t anybody got any business talkin’ like that-it just makes me sick.” (Lee199) Mr. Gilmer calls Tom Robinson “boy” repetitively to degrade Tom; while Tom stays respectful. Dill realizes what is occurring, he runs out of the courtroom wailing. He only sees an innocent man being despised by the jury and Mr. Gilmer for a crime he didn’t do: not a “nigger” who is going against a white man’s word. Jem states after Tom Robinson is claimed guilty, "I think I’ll be a clown when I get grown,' said Dill 'There ain’t one thing in this world I can do about folks except laugh, so I’m gonna join the circus and laugh my head off.” Dill wants the innocence of childhood that has not been discolored by the cold-hearted trial. Saying that all he can do about folks, with the mental disability called racism, is laugh. He notices how everyone ignores all the facts just to put a “nigger” in jail.“I always thought Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world, least that’s what they seemed like” (Lee215). Real eyes, realize, real lies.
Jem, a young boy, is the son of a lawyer. A lawyer that fights for the right thing even when its hard. The lawyer, Atticus, who has not brainwashed his kids to discriminate against a man based off of looks. “It was Jem’s turn to cry. His face was streaked with angry tears as we made our way through the cheerful crowd.”(Lee212) Jem cries because Tom is found guilty, although everyone knows Tom is innocent. Jem is irreproachable because he believes Tom Robinson, a black man, can win against the Ewell’s, a white family, in court.“Doesn’t make it right-you just can’t convict a man with evidence like that. You just can’t” (Lee220) Atticus, Tom’s lawyer/Jem’s dad, provided easy-to-see facts that an eight year old could comprehend, Tom was innocent. Jem had so much hope that Tom wouldn’t be guilty. If the jury was to be a jury of kids, Tom would have been innocent; but since the jury was adults the verdict turned out otherwise.
Growing up is hard when children lose their innocence. The children, Scout, Dill ,and Jem, start to lose their innocence by witnessing Tom who is punished for a crime he did not commit. They start to see how prejudice the world can be. The children will not blame a black man, because he is a “nigger”. They will blame a man for a crime he did commit. “Because you’re children and you can understand it,”(Lee201) Children are the only people whom seemed to see the truth. The only people able to look past the colors. “They've [jury] done it before and they did it tonight [convict a man because he is black] and they'll do it again and when they do it—seems that only children weep. Good night."(Lee213)