Examine the Themes of Innocence and Experience in To Kill a Mockingbird

Examine the Themes of Innocence and Experience in To Kill a Mockingbird

Innocence is a time when a person has never done something; it is the

first step of the journey from innocence to experience. The second

step in this movement is experience and this is what is achieved after

a person has done something they have never done before or learns

something they have never known before. This theme of growth from

innocence to experience occurs many times in To Kill a Mockingbird and

is one of the central themes in the first part of the novel, because

it shows how Jem and Scout change and mature over a small period of

time. Jem, Scout and Dill find ways to use their boundaries, in

conjunction with their imaginations to amuse themselves by creating

games based on adult behaviour. As the children move through the

novel, they use these games to develop from their innocence to

experience by defining the realities of their games through the lives

of the adults. Through their own games and through the games of the

adults, the children learn values of respect, courage, and

understanding.

The story is told by Scout, a mature narrator looking back on herself

as a child. Scout’s naivety and childish view of the world is

highlighted by the reader, often understanding events better than

Scout herself.

The first example of Scout moving from innocence to experience is in

Chapter 2, when Scout unwillingly begins school. Her fellow pupil,

Walter Cunningham, refuses to borrow some money from Miss Caroline to

buy lunch, however Miss Caroline will not accept this refusal. Scout

enters the conversation and tries to explain this matter but is

consequently punished. She then retaliates, resulting in a fight with

Waler which ...

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...ever, the main example of innocence in the novel is also in Chapter

10, when the children are given air rifles for Christmas. Atticus

says ‘Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but

remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird’. The mockingbird represents

innocence. Like hunters who kill mockingbirds for sport, people kill

innocence, or other people who are innocent, without thinking about

what they are doing. Atticus stands firm in his defense of innocence

and urges his children not to shoot mockingbirds both literally and

figuratively. This is also in the title of To Kill a Mockingbird and

it has very little literal connection to the plot, but it carries a

great deal of symbolic weight. In this story of innocence destroyed by

evil, the ‘mockingbird’ comes to represent the idea of innocence.

Thus, to kill a mockingbird is to destroy innocence.