What Is The Theme Of To Kill A Mockingbird

The book To Kill a Mockingbird was full of symbolism and themes. The title itself was symbolic to the story. A mockingbird represented innocence, and to kill it would mean to kill the innocence of the people who possessed it. The three main themes of To Kill a Mockingbird were social inequality, innocence of people, and the challenges of growing up. The first theme of the book was social inequality. The social inequality was not only between blacks and whites, but also between the different economic levels in the town. The top level of the town were the rich people. These were families like Atticus’s. The next tier was the lower class like the Ewells. The Ewells were the “white trash” of the town, but all of the white people of the town were
Throughout the book this innocence was lost. They did not see color or stature, they only saw the goodness in people. They could not see the evil in people until the trial of Tom Robinson approached. The kids saw how the trial was unfair and biased. They knew Robinson was not guilty, but the jury convicted him anyway. At that moment they saw that there were people in the world that were good and some were evil. Tom was a good and holy black man, and Bob Ewell was an evil white man. But, because of his stature in society, he was killed for a crime he did not commit. He was innocent. To kill a mocking bird is to kill the innocence, or the innocent. Not only did Scout and Jem lose their innocence, but an innocent man was killed. Scout and Jem grew up, they moved on, but they did not want to grow up, and they were afraid of the real world. Jem says, “If there's just one kind of folks, why can't they get along with each other? If they're all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other? Scout, I think I'm beginning to understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time. It's because he wants to stay inside" (Jem 259). Lee put this in her book to illustrate the unfairness of the world, and it took the young and innocent children to realize it. The struggle Jem and Scout had was they were growing up,
At the beginning of the book, the two kids were in a state of child-like ignorance. They only knew what was “good” from listening to their father, and the only evil they knew was what they did not know about. By the end of the book, that all changes. At the beginning Scout was a young girl and acted like a boy. Her father and aunt cannot stand it. Scout never realized it, but her aunt tries to make her into a young women. She made Scout wear more grown up clothes and act more lady-like. Scout also attended school for the first time. This was the first time we saw Scout lose her innocence. She saw how the teacher treated the poorer kids and the starving and suffering. She saw the teachers do nothing to help these children and realized that not everyone in the world was good. Jem and Scout both changed their outlooks on Boo Radley by the end of the book. In the beginning they knew nothing of Boo. All they knew was what they heard from the rumors spread by others. At the end they realized why Boo stayed inside; and that is because the world stunk. People like Boo and Tom were treated unfairly and judged unjustly. Once Scout and Jem figured that out, they saw how the world worked. The two kids never saw the evil in people at the beginning, but part of growing up was growing smarter and more alert. At the end of the book the young children grew 30 years in 3 years and were exposed