The art of innocence is something that is held highly in today’s society. In court, the accused is always determined as innocent until proven guilty. With this in mind, it is easy to say some people still are seen as guilty and must be proven innocent. This idea is especially true in the life of Jean Louise Finch as she sees people who are looked upon as guilty when they have done nothing wrong. It was shown through the lives of people in this novel, and it can still be seen today. These people are referred to as the mockingbirds. In her book To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the metaphor of a mockingbird to show how virtuous people can be cast aside by society because society believes they are guilty.
Atticus Finch is a man with high moral standards and values. This creates him as a compassionate man to all
…show more content…
people, even the people of the Negro community. Through his selfless act of defending an innocent man, Atticus Finch, Scout’s “elderly” father, gets classified as a mockingbird when the town of Maycomb chastises him. Because of his solicitous nature to all people, Atticus is put in a quandary that is extremely hard to be in because it is not like the Civil War where they were fighting strangers. In fact, Atticus says, “‘It’s different this time,’ he said. ‘This time we aren’t fighting the Yankees, we’re fighting our friends,’” (Lee 87). The battle that Atticus is fighting is immensely strenuous because his friends have turned against him when he has done nothing wrong. Scout and her brother Jem do not understand why the people of Maycomb castigate him so badly. Atticus replies to their questions and says, “‘I’m simply defending a Negro--his name’s Tom Robinson,’” (86). In this time period, it is not illegal to defend a Negro, but rather is seen as frowned upon in society; therefore, it is not right for Atticus and his defendant to be looked down upon because they are both innocent from any crime. The whole situation comes down to an issue of race and evolves into a dangerous controversy. When talking about race during the 60s, many white Americans in the south looked to Negroes as dirt and lowly people. One of these derelicts in the book is Tom Robinson, a Negro who is accused of raping a white girl by the name of Mayella Ewell. Tom Robinson, because of the color of his skin, is considered a mockingbird when he is falsely accused and is treated like a criminal. The reason these accusations are false is because Tom is not the type of person who would commit a crime as big as rape. Just from observation, Scout says, “He seemed to be a respectable Negro,” meaning he is actually a good person because “a respectable Negro would never go up into somebody’s yard of his own volition,” and rape a white woman (219). Tom knew what his place was in society and never desired to step out of line for fear of retribution. He is just “‘a quiet, respectable, humble Negro who has the unmitigated temerity to ‘feel sorry’ for a white woman has to put his word against two white people’s,’” (232). Because of his place in society, he was condemned before the incident ever happened. Most of the white people of Maycomb were against the Negro population. Tom did not deserve to be accused because he was just trying to help Mayella with chores since nobody else was going to. By putting him into the spotlight, it made him a mockingbird because he did not do anything but help others and was ridiculed and betrayed. Another character who avoided this spotlight society gives people was Boo Radley. Boo Radley was Scout’s mysterious neighbor, who ends up saving Scout and her brother from being killed by Mayella’s father Bob Ewell. Before this event, Boo never went outside of his house. There were stories going around the town about how he was a lunatic that deserved to be locked in a mental institution, but in reality people just did not know who the real Boo Radley was. Because of his reputation of being a recluse, Boo Radley is seen as a mockingbird when he is really just misunderstood. Most of the town knew only the stories that have been told about him, but Miss Maudie, Scout’s other neighbor, recalls what Boo Radley was like when he was young. She remembers him and says, “He always spoke nicely to me, no matter what folks said he did. Spoke as nicely as he knew how,’” (51). Miss Maudie is a character the reader learns to respect through her wisdom. Her opinion of Boo Radley is one that needs to be taken into account because it shows that Boo has been classified by the false stories that have been spread through gossip. Later when Boo saves the children, the sheriff wants to make Bob’s death look like an accident in order to save Boo from being exposed to the whole town. He explains this when he says, “‘To my way of thinkin’, Mr Finch, taking the one man who’s done you and this town a great service an’ draggin’ him with him shy ways into the limelight - to me, that’s a sin,’” (317). Heck does not believe that Boo is a bad guy at all, and he is someone who just likes his privacy. Boo is someone who has helped Atticus and is just shy around everyone else. He does not deserve to be punished and forced into the spotlight if he doesn’t want to. If he was to be exposed as the children’s savior, the town would never leave him alone. This would make him a mockingbird because it would hurt him when all he did was a good deed. The mockingbird is a symbol that can be used in any time period in history.
It is someone who has done nothing but what he or she is supposed to, yet is reprimanded, hurt, cast aside, or even killed for reasons not explainable. Atticus Finch, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird are superb examples of the mockingbirds that society can create. Their lives can be used as models for the people in society today who are branded because of skin color, rumors, or going against the popular opinion. This is a problem that has seem to evolve into something bigger as time goes on. Today people can cause such a commotion about issues that could be solved if people just stopped gossiping and instead forming their own opinions. Even though many think society has gotten better about this, they really have not and instead have gotten even more critical and even more biased. Society needs to take a good hard look at itself and realize that classifications and labels of people are not needed. Instead of classifying people as mockingbirds, everyone should be seen as an eagle, free and independent to be apart of society without fear or being cast
aside.
In Harper Lee’s, “To Kill A Mockingbird” a true definition of the mockingbird is shown, a symbol extremely important to the novel. In the beginning of the novel, Boo Radley is condemned – not because of his own actions but the misdeeds of those around him. Many stories were forged to generate a bad vibe for the name Boo Radley to the point that his house was essentially taboo. Later on Tom Robinson is proven as the Ultimate Mockingbird, Tom is just an average negro who tried to help out a white person, which was obviously a bad decision. Another definition of a mockingbird is innocence, which is evident in Atticus’ daughter Scout. The unwritten law, “It is a sin to kill a mockingbird” is often overlooked and also obeyed in Maycomb County.
Throughout the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus Finch demonstrates himself as an honest lawyer, a loving father, and a symbol of righteousness through his beliefs that he instills in his children. Atticus Finch values empathy, respect, and bravery, and he proves himself as a moral compass by teaching both Jem and Scout these values in the form of life lessons.
A child’s journey to adulthood will corrupt their innocence. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the two main characters Jem and Scout are forced to grow up and face the realities of their world as their father prepared for one of the most controversial cases in his career. As the trial date gets closer and closer, Jem and Scout witnessed negative and positive things caused by the folks of Maycomb, they were not prepared for. Through all the commotion Jem and Scout learned the importance of benevolence and courage as it influenced their changing perspective on the world. The qualities Jem and Scout learn from benevolence and courage change how they see their world by showing them fairness, kindness and bravery.
Innocence evidently comes with birth and is kept through existence as time moves forward, but it soon becomes corrupted with specific life changing occurrences. In the film To Kill a Mockingbird directed by Robert Mulligan, which is based upon the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” written by Harper Lee, there are three prominent characters in which innocence is rendered within. The three characters are Jem Finch, his sister Scout or Jean Louise Finch, and their neighbor Boo Radley or Arthur Radley. They each possess a different form of innocence because of the diverse personalities and consequently have their innocence obliterated in distinct ways. The
Loss of Innocence in Killing a Mockingbird Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather, the streets turned red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. " (Lee 9). This environment, as Scout Finch accurately describes, is not conducive to young children, loud noises, and games. But, the Finch children and Dill must occupy themselves in order to avoid boredom.
Innocence is defined as the state of being not guilty of a crime or other wrong act. The definition does not have any exceptions depending on race, age, gender or other physical characteristics. Yet in the south, the innocence of a guilty white man, is more important than the innocence of an innocent black man. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, is about a young girl named Scout who lives in Maycomb County, Alabama. The novel is separated into two parts, the first part is about the adventures of Boo Radley. While the second part is about the trial of Tom Robinson. In the first part of the novel, Scout along with her brother Jem and her friend Dill investigate the mysterious life of their neighbor, Boo Radley. Boo has not left
Also the most significant symbol in this novel is the mockingbird symbol which represents innocent people victims of a cruel society. There were two mockingbirds that were killed because one was black and the other was creepy. This was a case of injustice because two people’s lives were taken away from them because of one’s race and one being different from others. Even in a court of law some people do not get a fare trial. Only in the end when we all stand before God he will give us all a fare trial. Mockingbirds and Finches are type of song birds. Harper Lee gave the main characters’ the last name “Finch”, because the family was innocent and accepted all their neighbors.
In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee tells the story of coming-of-age and the loss of innocence through the character Jem. Through recurring events, Jem is faced with the realization of society’s injustice, and is left questioning the world he lives in. During a time of rampant racial discrimination and prejudice in the south, Jem transforms from naivety to maturity.
To Kill a Mockingbird - Theme of Innocence & nbsp; & nbsp; Innocence is a time when a person has never done something, it is the first step in the theme of innocence to experience. The second step in the movement from innocence to experience, is experience. This step is what is achieved after a person or thing has done something they have never done before or learns something they have never known before. The theme of growth from innocence to experience occurs many times in the first part of To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. This process is one of the central themes in the first eleven chapters of this book, because it shows how Scout and Jem change and mature. & nbsp;
The illusion of innocence is deeply instilled in the outlook of children. Reality soon takes its grip as kids begin to grow and mature, and they lose their pure qualities that they have once possessed. Their father Atticus shelters Jem and Scout from the town’s disease, teaching them the act of sympathy and how to distinguish the good aspects over glaring at the imperfections of people. The loss of innocence portrayed in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is exposed as the lives of Jem, Scout, and Dill go through their racist and prejudice society, learning how the worlds dreamlike qualities is nothing more than just a childhood fable. The children’s judgment of people and society quickly sheds as Lee displays the harsh realities to Jem, Dill,
“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (p.90) Miss. Maudie, one of the main protagonists in To Kill a Mockingbird, warns the young girl Scout that mockingbirds should not to be killed or hunted down because they represent those who are kind and innocent. So, on a broader spectrum, the term “to kill a mockingbird” symbolizes cruel and improper behavior towards people with good hearts and intentions. In the town of Maycomb, unethical behaviors, such as prejudice and gossip, are most commonly used against the “mockingbirds”. Three of those “mockingbirds” that are featured in this novel are Arthur “Boo” Radley, Tom Robinson, and Atticus Finch. Due to the depiction of the mockingbird symbol in the novel, the reader understands the consequences that immoral attitudes have towards those who are innocent and kindhearted.
Throughout the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird the attributes Atticus Finch attains become parallel to the traits of the mockingbird. “The mockingbirds do wrong but make music for everyone to enjoy” Miss Maudie had once said. Atticus Finch is a individual who defends the innocent from the evil the world had brought them For instance, when Atticus agreed to handle the case of Tom Robinson, he put his own life and his children in danger to the negative comments and treatment, he was destined to receive as a punishment for his actions. Atticus was a victim of his neighbor’s gossip; they talked bad about him to his children and sent hateful glares to himself and his children. Atticus Finch is considered a mockingbird because he instead letting the town’s retribution decide for him, he took the objective to taking the case despite the negative treatment he was going to endure. Atticus put aside all the town’s talk and took the case to protect an innocent man the li...
In a society surrounded by corruption, racism, and cruelty it is rare to find purity. Innocence is constantly being destroyed. For this reason, the harmless citizens need to be treasured and protected. Harper Lee 's classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird portrays the injustices of the 1930 's that expose the innocent to the mal of the society’s intentions. Some characters in the novel are characterized as harmless and pure and are symbolized by mockingbirds. It is then stated that killing a mockingbird is a sin, therefore meaning that killing innocent people is also sin. Lee’s eye-opening novel reminds the reader that one should protect the beauty of the innocence by not allowing
The title “To Kill A Mockingbird” is taken from a quote in the book, where Atticus says "Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." (lee Later, Miss Maudie Atkinson states that "Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy." (p.177). This shows that mocking birds are innocent, and that is why Atticus strongly forbids his children to kill them. To Kill a Mockingbird novels theme is how prejudice affects the town of maycomb,alabama. Also, the mockingbird symbolizes innocence. All the birds do is sing for you and give you pleasure in what is natural and enjoyment to them (singing for you). Theydont harm,. They are fragile,loveable, weak, and helpless birds. In the novel to kill a mocking bird by Harper lee,.the novel is about a heart breaking story set in a town of maycomb,Alabama where a black male by the name of tom Robinson is accused of raping a white female. The message in the novel is developed threw the 3 characters that are considered the mocking birds and a few other characters that seem to only do the good and help fight against this case of racism and prejudice. The good people and unjudgmental citizens of maycomb stood up and fought against. the significance of the title to kill a mockingbird is represented by tom Robinson boo radley and scout finch. The characteristics that lead them to be called the mockingbirds are a display of innocence, peace, accusations negative allegations,
Atticus Finch is the moral backbone of Maycomb County in the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. He is exactly who everyone in Maycomb should look up to and is a great father because he represents the basic morals most people at that time lacked. Atticus demonstrates seeing people as equals when no one else then can because of the strong racial prejudice. He also sees other peoples perspectives for their own benefit and has tremendous courage when it is necessary.