To Kill a Moking Bird
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To Kill a Mockingbird
By Harper lee
The book To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee has a lot of different types of motif in the novel. There is a vast variety of motifs in this novel; one type of motif is innocence and the loss of innocence in the children in the book. For example when Jem starts to grow up and become a man. And when Scout learns to see things in others perspective, instead of judging others on how they act.
In the part of the book when Walter Cunningham comes over to the Finches house for dinner after he gets beat up by Scout. While he was eating dinner with the Finches he did something weird in Scouts point of view. “Walter poured syrup on his vegetables and meat with a generous hand.” (pg.29)Walter does not grasp that it is discourteous to just pour syrup on all his food; he does this because he hasnt grown up in the environment the finches have grown up in.
Another instance of innocence and the loss of innocence show up when Jem stops Scout from smashing the roly-poly. “I decided to end things. My hand was going down on him when Jem spoke.” (pg 238) This motif shows innocence on Scouts part and the loss of innocence in Jems part. Scout doesnt know how valuable life really is, and that she shouldnt just end it just for her pleasure even though it is an insect. It is innocence on scouts part because she doesnt understand that she is being cruel. Jem stopped Scout
because he is now growing up and thinking about things more deeply, and knows that the roly-poly should not be killed because didnt do anything to harm Scout.
One more appearance of the innocence motif is when Miss. Stephanie Crawford keeps filling Jems head with gossip around the town. “So, Jem received most of his information from Miss. Stephanie Crawford.”(pg 11) Innocence shows up when Jem will believe anything Miss. Stephanie Crawford has to say especially the stuff about Boo Radley and how he stays locked up in the house. Jem and the children will become carried away with things about boo. Also it will change their perception on how they think of him.
This book is sort of based on the innocence of the children and how it changes throughout their experiences. Also on how they mature and start to loose their innocence and start thinking about things more deeply.