To Kill a Mockingbird EN10

Notes: Topic & Concluding sentence Main ideas Quotes Analysis

To Kill a Mockingbird Literary Paragraph

Novel To Kill a Mockingbird is written by Harper Lee. She explores a theme of childish

innocence through the growing experience of three children living in Maycomb. Their

feelings and recognitions convey an idea that innocence helps children get mature.

Innocence gives them the opportunity to know what the society really is. Scout confronts

her Grade One teacher Miss Caroline, “That’s okay, you’ll get to know all the country

folks after a while.”(20) Scout does not do anything wrong. She just wants to help Miss

Caroline to get familiar with the Maycomb town, but the way she tries to do so is not

considered polite. Scout is punished afterwards because of her innocence, and she learns

not to be immediately offensive to everyone. In chapter 19, Dill cries for the injustice

and prejudice he sees on the courtroom. Mr. Dolphus Raymond says, “Things haven’t

caught up with that one’s instinct yet. Let him get a little older and he won’t get sick and

cry. Maybe things'll strike him as a being —— not quite right, say, but he won’t cry, not

when he gets a few years on him.”(201) This event has a great influence on Dill and

impact his values directly. He is still a child and is getting knowledge from the outside

world everyday. When he recollects his childlike innocence before, he acquires new

recognitions on that event. If he has not experienced things with his naiveness, he may

not get to know the different aspects of the society.

As Mr. Dolphus Raymond says, it is easily for human being to be not quite right in the

process of growing. Keeping childish innocence in our hearts helps us set up principles

1
 To Kill a Mockingbird EN10
Notes: Topic & Concluding sentence Main ideas Quotes Analysis

of what is right or wrong. Atticus Finch says in chapter 9, “I just hope that Jem and

Scout some to me for their answers instead of listening to the town. I hope they trust me

enough… Jean Louise.”(88) The reason why he hopes so is that he wants the children

not to easily believe the rumor spreading in the town but to always trust the truth that

he tells them in their heart. Although our innocent ideals cannot be realized in such a

society, our views must not be altered. We are growing and absorbing knowledges from

the outside, but we are required to be capable of rejecting prejudiced thought.Miss Gates

evaluates Jews that “They contribute to every society they live in, and most of all, they’re

deeply religious people.” (245), while she gossips with Miss Stephanie Crawford about

the ugliness of the Black people.Scout get confused with Miss Gates’ double standard

and she supposes that it is not right innocently, and asks her father. If Atticus Finch did

not make the trust of her children and keep their naiveness, Scout could accept the

double standard from Miss Gates, and that is what we are not willing to see.

To Kill a Mockingbird tells us, childlike innocence boosts children’s growing and guides

them to the bright side.