What qualities distinguish someone as innocent as opposed to someone who is impure or guilty? How do acts of crime, prejudice, or injustice affect this definition? What does it actually mean to be innocent? Harper Lee answers these topics in her award winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. In Lee’s novel, a young family in the heart of Maycomb Alabama is challenged with the brunt of racist and prejudiced ideas against African Americans. This family, known as the Finches, is an upstanding household that does their best to subtly spread ideas of equality and respect to the other citizens of their town. The story follows a young girl named Scout, who grows up with her brother Gem, experiencing many lessons and bold events leading up to the trial …show more content…
Boo is a social recluse who is often misunderstood as a monster after having a violent incident at a young age. In reality, Scout gets to see a brighter, more pure side to Boo, after he secretly gives her gifts. After a climactic ending in the courtroom, the antagonist Bob Ewell acts on his revenge on Atticus by going after his children when a mysterious figure saves them, “Mr. Tate found his neck and rubbed it. ‘Bob Ewell’s lyin’ on the ground under that tree down yonder with a kitchen knife stuck up under his ribs. He’s dead, Mr. Finch’” (Lee 289). Scout always describes her relationship with Boo as a very positive one, where Boo acts like a silent friend, giving her help in kind, genuine ways. Boo is an embodiment of innocence, even being named the symbol of a mockingbird by Scout, referring to someone who is selfless and puts the needs of other people in front of theirs. After Boo leaves his house for the first time in years, the only place where he feels comfortable, then kills another man, for right or wrong, his life will ultimately never be the same. Lee is showing how Bob Ewell's prejudiced nature, often going against people who are defenseless like the Finch children, ruined Boo’s innocence. Boo is put in an unfortunate position where he could defend his only friends or harm someone to keep them safe. Boo …show more content…
Scout, like her father Atticus, is an avid reader, and because of this, she honed her reading and writing skills at a swift rate. At this point in the book, Scout has never experienced any major discrimination, and that changes after she gets targeted by Miss Caroline because of her superb reading skills. After being scolded by Miss Caroline, Scout thinks to herself, “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing” (Lee 16). Scout gets targeted by Mrs. Caroline because she goes against her traditional ways of teaching and isn't able to adapt to the student's characteristics. This connects to the recurring theme of prejudice, as Scout is the minority in this situation, being the only one who can read well, and she is targeted for something that is not bad. This defines Scout by portraying how she can accurately understand the discrimination and its effects on her feelings. Furthermore, she has the sudden mental development that if you have fear of losing something, that something is more important now. This is yet another example of Scout as a character growing and learning from her lessons. Even though Scout’s discrimination can feel childish and insignificant, they link the broader theme of prejudice ideas ruining innocent values in a child’s world to that of a more serious situation like racial
Many of the townsfolk viewed him as an evil or mean spirited person. An instance of him being a mockingbird is first seen when Boo begins to put things in the hole of a tree for Jem and Scout to have until it gets filled with cement (44-45). Another example is when Boo puts a blanket around Scout while she is watching the fire at Miss Maudie's house and Scout does not even notice (94-95). The last and biggest act takes place while Scout and Jem are walking home from the play and they are attacked by Bob Ewell. Then to save them Boo stabs Bob
The townspeople thought Boo was an evil man who caused trouble around the neighborhood because of his past experiences as a child. Boo opens up to Jem and Scout throughout the novel and they see he is really a lonely, caring man in need of a friend. Boo was known as the towns troublemaker and had a bad reputation, many people were scared of him. " Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom people said he existed, but Jem and I had never seen him. People say he went out at night when the moon was down, and peeped and windows.
Throughout the book, Atticus tries very hard not to expose his children to Maycomb’s disease, but his attempt in sheltering them from the racism flowing throughout the town isn’t as successful as he had hoped; Jem and Scout are picture perfect examples of what the loss of innocence can do to children. On Scout’s first day of school, she is about as excited as a child can get; naturally, she would think her teacher would be amazed at her astounding reading capabilities, but upon reading the alphabet and quotes about the stock-market from The Mobile Register; and explaining that her father, Atticus, taught her what she knew Miss Caroline simply said that Atticus, “does not know how to teach” (23). Just by telling her this Scout felt as if it
Mr. Ewell describes to Atticus that to him it is a “sin” to bring a shy man who does good out of the shadows that the society has forced him to go into. Boo Radley has been an individual in the society for as long as anyone can remember and bring someone who has been characterized as a boogeyman into the society that has given him that name is wrong. Scout uses the rule that Atticus taught her about the Mockingbird to show Atticus that presenting Boo to the society is wrong. After Mr. Tate explains to Atticus the moral principles of the matter of bringing Boo into the light Atticus puts aside his views and thinks about his mockingbird. Seeing her father's discomfort Scout assures him
In the book, Heck Tate 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 his shy ways into the limelight-to me, that’s a sin” (Lee 369-370). In this quote, Heck Tate explains that Boo has done a great service for the town and he implies that Boo is not confined to his house; Boo is simply very shy. Boo proves himself a hero when he saves Jem and Scout. By saving Jem and Scout, Boo proved that he is not the psychotic delinquent that they thought he was; he is simply a shy, but heroic,
With Scout being a girl, that makes it easy for people to have prejudice towards her. Scout already knows how to read when she gets to school. Her teacher, Miss Caroline, assumes everyone
Throughout the book, Boo has sheltered himself from society and has rarely been seen outside. Boo lost his innocence much earlier in his life, so he is wiser and knows what to do in different situations. This is specifically shown on page 357 when we figure out that Boo saved the kids from being hurt or killed by Bob Ewell. This demonstrates the theme that is being shown throughout the book because Boo shows his experience in life and knew that something was wrong when he heard the kids scream, so he did anything he could to save them. The literary choice used in this scene is foreshadowing because throughout the whole book, we begin to learn more about how Boo isn’t a bad character at all, but a very kind and compassionate one, so that foreshadowed him saving Jem and Scout.
The reason that Boo could fight off a man with a knife I that he brings one of his own. This knife is found and taken by a sheriff named Heck Tate because it can be evidence against Boo which will mean a whole new court case against the murder of Bob Ewell. The sheriff did not want this because he knows Boo is innocent. Atticus is originally against this idea but then says to himself that “it would sorta be like shootin’ a mockingbird wouldn’t it?” (Lee 316).
As children, innocence is the very basis of life; however, one thing lead to another, and that innocence is lost and replaced with a new outlook, a new sense of maturity. Harper Lee’s novel, ‘To Kill A Mockingbird,’ takes place during the Great Depression in a small southern town called Maycomb. Starting from the beginning, the symbolism of mockingbirds and their innocence is revealed. As the story progresses, we get to see through the eyes of Scout Finch, the racial injustices the town bears through a court case involving a false accusation from Mayella Ewell, a white woman, and Tom Robinson, a black man. Though, as the trial progresses to an end and the verdict of Tom Robinson is decided by the all-white jury whilst disregarding the very
Boo was misjudged by the whole town because he left gifts for the children which lead to his true nature as a person. He was described as a violent man and no one even stood in his shoes to see what he goes through. The contrast between him and Bob Ewell explains that Boo was trying to prevent it as a malice. He also carried Jem back to his home and he stays with him to make sure that Jem is okay. As stated in the novel, no one should harm a mocking bird because all it dies is sing and bring beauty to everyones lives when they are attacked like Bob Ewell
He’s dead” (266). When Jem and Scout are attacked, Boo jumps in and bravely fights off Bob Ewell. After the incident, Atticus tells Boo, “thank you for my children” (276). Boo has an abundance of courage, risking unwanted attention and risking his
Boo Radley, a reserved neighbor of the Finch’s, comes to the defense of Jem and Scout by killing Bob Ewell, so Bob Ewell’s need for revenge resulted in his own death. One of the final
His innocence is not entirely seen by the town. To Kill a Mockingbird and Mississippi Trial, 1955 both have characters that symbolize an act of innocence. Although these characters are alike in
However, Scout believes that they were left in the tree for them specifically. As Scout meets Boo in the flesh after what he does to save her from Mr. Ewell, she begins to see Boo by his heroic actions rather than the rumors. Boo finally has a friend who sees him as something other than a
In which Scout says “Well, it’d be sort of shootin a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?” (317). Boo is an important symbol of the good (innocence) that exists within people. Despite the pain that Boo has suffered from others, his kindness shows with his interaction with the children.