Innocence In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Innocence is described as a lack of knowledge and purity not spoiled by an experience, but sometimes, pushing innocence behind is required for coming of age. Throughout the book, Lee takes Jem and Scout through a journey of understanding what’s really going on behind the curtain Maycomb chooses to draw around their community, but as they encounter experience after experience and start to grow up, innocence is still displayed through the characters. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee utilizes characters, settings and conflict in order to illustrate the impact of innocence on coming of age. Characters are specifically placed in every scene and interact with other characters to help express an overall theme. When Dill snuck away from Meridian …show more content…
Scout and Dill were angry with Jem and his decisions, Scout noting that Jem looked “like the traitor he was” as they left Jem “without in word,” indicating the tension now formed between the three (188). Although in Scout and Dill’s eyes Jem did the traitorish thing, Jem was forced to break their childhood code in order to do the right thing, as Jem understood that this was the right thing to do in that situation. Jem’s understanding of right and wrong while also choosing the right thing to do signifies that Jem has grown up and has left childish things, like their code, behind. Along with Jem’s actions, his physical appearance signifies his coming of age. After they found Dill under the bed and before Jem told Atticus about Dill's whereabouts, Dill was explaining his story to Jem and Scout. Dill confessed that while Jem and Scout were fighting, Dill thought about emerging from under the bed to help Scout, but “Jem had grown far taller” since the last time Dill had seen him, and so …show more content…
This form of conflict is seen near the beginning of the novel when Walter Cunningham was invited to the Finches house for dinner. Scout watched as Walter “drowned his dinner in syrup,” which Scout didn’t approve of (32). When “Atticus shook his head” at Scout, she exclaimed that Walter had “poured it all over” his food, which isn’t very common to do (32). At this moment, Calpurnia calls Scout into the kitchen and explains to her that she needs to treat Walter as she would anyone else. Her innocence blinds her from seeing the wrongdoing in her actions, and it takes her being in the presence of the symbol of her innocence for her to gain understanding. Near the end of the book when Boo is in the Finches’ house, Scout offers to take him “to the porch” (364). This is due to the fact that she noticed “Boo... drifted to a corner of the room” and understand that he was uncomfortable (371). As she continues to spend more time with Boo, she is “beginning to learn his body English” as he is reluctant to speak (372). At this point in her life, she no longer needs someone to tell her how to act towards another person, as she independently comes to the decision to aid Boo. At the same time, she learns his movements and the significance in them without a word spoken by him. Scout is able to grow up and understand Boo and his actions, and uses that to guide him and herself towards the
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