Essay On Innocence In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Just as hunters can kill mockingbirds in sports, people can kill innocence or other individuals who are innocent. This correlation is well illustrated in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. The author incorporates symbolism and point-of-view to illustrate her point that innocence is a very fragile quality that can be destroyed easily by humanity’s actions and words. In this novel, there are several cases where a harmless and naive person is exposed to the evils surrounding him, and thus, his or her innocence is destroyed—either by adult realities or society itself.
Harper Lee makes an excellent choice in narrating the book through Scout’s perspective to depict how Maycomb altered the young girl’s simple and childlike view of the world by creating …show more content…

Because of this youthfulness and initial lack of knowledge, Scout starts to uncover the truth about the injustice that exists in the world and the evils of society, causing her childhood innocence to fade away slowly. For example, she doesn’t comprehend why students in her school ridicule Atticus for defending a Negro. Her pure set of eyes just don’t see the wrong in what her father is doing: “Then why did Cecil say you defended niggers? He made it sound like you were runnin’ a still” (Lee 75). Doing his best to preserve her innocence since she isn’t old enough, Atticus tries to explain to Scout that there is really nothing wrong, but the people of Maycomb just see it as a disgrace. Nevertheless, some of her naivete is still lost when she later on realizes the harsh truth of being called a “nigger-lover” from Atticus himself: “’Scout,’ said Atticus, ‘nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don't mean anything—like snot-nose. It's hard to explain—ignorant, trashy people use it when they think somebody's favoring Negroes over and above themselves. It's slipped into usage with some people like

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