Loss of Innocence

What do you see when look at a song bird? A being of innocence. A bird that hears no evil, speaks no evil and sees no evil. All it does is sing for everyone to hear. When it’s killed, the innocence is lost just like in To Kill a Mockingbird. Scout, Jem, and Tom Robinson start in this way but as the trial begins the mockingbird is slaughtered by the real world.

The beginning of the book reveals the life of the people in Maycomb county. It shows the kids having fun and messing around. Just living a childhood of innocence. As the book goes on Scout and Jem catch glances of the real world around them. This is the start to the slow death of the innocent mockingbird.  At one point Atticus buys the kids BB guns and tells them, “Shoot all the blue jays you want if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (90). This shows that the kids are the mockingbirds surrounded by blue jays by which their sins kill the small songbirds.

Unlike the part one of the book, part two begins the execution of the mockingbird. The single trial of Tom Robinson begins the kids journey into the real world. An innocent black man accused of rape of a white woman kicks the town into a frenzy of racism, picking sides, and craziness. Tom Robinson is also a mockingbird  caught up in the cruel world. White people had the power and once Mayella spoke the first words against Tom he was done for. Atticus defends this black man with his full might but the town either supports him or doesn’t. He helps Tom make the first steps to become a free man again. Then the men of the town take tom out of jail to kill him causing “[the] murder of a an innocent songbird”(192). The men aren't even prosecuted for their crime. All these events give the kids a mountaintop view of reality. Not to mention the crazy Bob Ewell who tries to kill the kids and threatens anyone connected to the trial.

This story shows the loss of innocence though many characters. This is a mirror to our real life because we all start off innocent and free in childhood but we grow old in hope to hold onto this innocence that is slowly slipping away.