To Kill A Mockingbird Quote Analysis

To Kill Innocence

Reading the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, has occurred to some people that if they look close enough for deeper meaning in the characters, places, and events that happen in Maycomb County, that they would find it. To Kill A Mockingbird is a novel laden with significance and symbols. Unless it is clear what is happening, the symbolism is not easy to distinguish at first. It is usually foreshadowed earlier in the plot, and the reader is given clues before the message is apparent.They can figure this out by looking for deeper meanings by putting the pieces together from dialect, dialogue, attitude, and tone. The symbolic meaning of innocence and the destruction of it is something that is shown over and over in To Kill A

Mockingbird. This theme of innocence and the detrustruction of it is hidden in the traits of people, places, and specific events throughout the plot.
The theme of innocence can be shown through Tom Robinson. In the story, Tom Robinson is arrested and charged for raping Mayella Ewell, a young white woman, when all he was trying to do was help her. Although he did not commit the crime, he was found guilty when he was innocent. Calpurnia explains to Scout, “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.” (119). In this context, Tom can be referred to a mockingbird. He has never done anything to harm anyone else or pestered them. All he has ever done and will ever do is try to make the world a better place by helping and being kind towards Mayella Ewell and the rest of the community. When he is killed in the prison, it was like a mockingbird being shot. It is a sin to destroy the life of someone or something innocent.
The school yard can also symbolize innocence. The schoolyard is full of young kids that are innocent. Kids are iconic symbols of innocence because they are young and usually have not experienced anything traumatic in their lives. Throughout the story the kids of Maycomb’s innocence starts to become diminished by the trial, its outcome, and the prejudice they learn from it. Even before the trial, kids began losing some of their innocence from what they heard Tom Robinson did. An example of a child losing their innocence is Cecil Jacobs, “He (Cecil Jacobs) announced in the schoolyard the day before that Scout Finch’s daddy defended niggers.” (99). The reader can see that in this quote Cecil is already thinking Tom Robinson is guilty before the trial. You can also tell that he is being racist by making it sound like defending a black man is a bad thing. Cecil also uses the term “nigger” and that shows his loss of innocence by referring to Tom that way.
A major event that foreshadows and symbolizes innocence is when Scout sees snow for the very first time in her life.

The snow represents Jem and Scout’s innocence because they use it for play and fun. Later on in the evening, there was a house fire and burns down houses and the snowman that Jem and Scout made. “I watched our Absolute Morphodite (snowman) go black and crumble; Miss Maudie’s sunhat settled on top of the heap.” (94). This quote is a perfect example of how Jem and Scout’s innocence is destroyed and how it will be destroyed later on while going through the experience of the trail. The fire symbolizes the trial; both are traumatic events that change Scout and Jem’s lives and shatter their innocence.

As any reader may see, throughout the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, there are many themes, symbols, and foreshadowing. A main theme and topic that affects the story majorly is the loss of innocence that Jem and Scout go throughout in the novel. Whether it is Tom Robinson, a school yard, or a dirty Morphodite snowman, they all play an important and crucial part in the plot. Each one represents the same idea, but they show and interpret differently in characters, places and events. Without the theme of, the loss of innocence, To Kill A Mockingbird would not be the famous and beloved novel that it is

today.