Final To Kill a Mockingbird Essay

Kassidy Webb
Mrs. Cooper
Honors English II
26 Jan 2014
Innocent Birds Atticus Finch said, “I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird." Jem learns that it’s wrong to kill a mockingbird because they are innocent creatures. As the citizens of Maycomb are introduced, you realize all the hatred and violence that kids, parents, and friends have to experience. Some children, like Dill, who’s basically an orphan, want nothing except to have a family to look after them; Or Jem, who start out enjoying their young lives, but later grow up to a world full of wrong-doing. Even a man who was victimized from one event that happened in his teen years, grows up innocent minded, yet was still treated as a foe after he grew up. Harper Lee destroys the innocence of three child-like “mockingbirds” in the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, to metaphorically illustrate the pureness that’s lost in everyday life. Lee composes a few examples from the city of Maycomb, but soon you realize how these very instances happen in our own lives as well. Boo Radley, an innocent man with a tortured soul, noticeably creates the image of the death of a mockingbird. Growing up being banished from the rest of the world, Boo earned a reputation that worked its way into tales that were being told by many children, and adults. Since the day that he got in trouble with the law, he’s been pushed away from reality, into a dark, cruel, life: shacked up in the same house, with the same brother, being punished, for years. With everything bad that happened, the citizens of Maycomb turn to think of Boo inside the Radley place. Scout explains: “Once the town was terrorized by a series of morbid events: people’s chickens and household pets were found mutilated; although the culprit was Crazy Addie… People still looked at the Radley place, unwilling to discard their initial suspicions.” Boo’s innocence was being destroyed over and over again, story by story. He was a victim of prejudice, yet, when two children needed his help, he didn’t care, he saved them. When Mr. Ewell goes to hurt Jem and Scout, Boo stabs Mr. Ewell; the death didn’t seem to faze Boo. He hurt a villain, but in the end was the reason two pristine individuals could still breathe. Atticus Finch recognizes this and thanks him. “Before he went inside the house, he stopped in front of Boo Radley. ‘Thank you for my children, Arthur.’” Even though Boo had to live through this tragic life, he volunteered to help out people that were the ones spreading the stories about him. Everyone in Maycomb gets the image that Boo’s a terrible person, but in reality he was just being judged, and is actually a person that cares, and helped at a moment of crisis. The destruction of an imagination is terrible; but when you destroy the innocence of a young child, it should be illegal. Living a fairly good life, a boy named Jem starts off his early years learning from only his mistakes, and playing around outside without having to worry about someone trying to hurt him. Eventually, the harsh atmosphere of the world gets to him, and he recognizes the terrifying side of life. When Tom Robinson was deemed guilty, Jem had a tough time dealing with the loss. Jem was angry about the injustice and didn’t know how to handle it. “His face was streaked with angry tears as we made our way through the cheerful crowd… ‘It ain’t right, Atticus’… ‘No son, it’s not.’” Unfortunately, Jem learns early on about the cruel reality of the world we live in. While every white man was cheering in the court house, Jem understands that the ruling was unfair and starts to see things in a different way. He learns of the hate that’s intoxicating the air we breathe. When Jem destroys Mrs. Dubose’s flowers out of hate because of the way she spoke of his father, he didn’t know about her illness. Jem soon learns to further become a man instead of a child when he has to read to Mrs. Dubose every day after school. When she dies, Jem gets a box with a Camilla from her. He freaks out, but Atticus calms him. “‘Jem, she was a great lady’… ‘A lady? After all those things she said about you, a lady?’… ‘She was. She had her own views about things, a lot different from mine, maybe… son, I wanted you to see something about her—I wanted you to see what real courage is’” Jem learns from this experience, and in result grows up a little more. Throughout the few years this novel takes place, Jem is involved in many situations that result in him becoming more responsible and mature. At such a young age, Jem’s innocence is lost; he no longer can live the life of a child, and now has been forced into a life of injustice. When you have to move around family to family, you start to think no one loves, or cares about you. Charles Baker Harris, otherwise known as Dill, experiences this life. Since his parents didn’t want him, Dill went from house to house, getting lonely everywhere he went. He didn’t want to tell the truth of why he goes so many places, so Dill has to come up with lies to make the children accept him. Dill knows his parents don’t love him, so he runs away. “Mr. Finch, don’t tell Aunt Rachel, don’t make me go back, please sir! I’ll run off again--!” Dill has to learn early on that people, who should love you, don’t. With all the hatred in the world, people don’t even take the time to love and appreciate their own child. After coming to terms with this, he learns even further about the word hate. When everyone’s in the courthouse, Mr. Gilmer talks in a rude manner towards Tom Robinson. Dill gets upset, ‘“Well, Mr. Finch didn’t act that way to Mayella and old Mr. Ewell’…’Well Dill, after all, he’s just a Negro’…’I don’t care one speck. It ain’t right, somehow it ain’t right to do ‘em that way. Hasn’t anybody got business talkin’ like that—it just makes me sick.’” Not even completely comprehending what’s going on, Dill still realizes that not everyone treats people the same way. Dill develops hatred toward the way Mr. Gilmore speaks to Tom in such a cruel way. He had never experienced this feeling before; but after he starts to see life without the innocent cloth draped over his eyes, he’s sucked into a death trap full of the hate. Throughout the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates how innocence is lost, but the feeling and knowledge of hate is gained. Is this a fair trade? Should we not have faith that the world can be full of good hearted, non-judgmental people? With the harsh reality of the situation, and the story and characters that Lee uses to convey it, we learn that eventually, most of the goodness is destroyed, and we’re left with people that know more about hate than love.