Maese 1

Siena Maese

English 1 A

Mr. Martin

9 April 2018

PA 3 Final

Scout and her older brother Jem were out with their new guns when Atticus told her

something that came as a shock, ​"I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you'll

go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a

mockingbird." (Lee, 119). Atticus Finch is Scout and Jem’s father and when he said this came as

a shock to her because Atticus is not religious, and she had never heard him say it was a sin to

anything before. In the quote above Scout and Jem are finally considered to be at the age where

they can use guns, but when her father sees this he changes the way Scout looks at things by

stating how it is a sin the kill a mockingbird, and this destroys her innocent thinking about her

father, because she grew up thinking that her father was not religious and when he said this it

changed her perspective of her father.. This novel continuously revolves around Scout and her

family members. Atticus Finch is Scout’s and Jem’s father, Miss. Maudie is an older woman that

Scout got close to over the summer, and Calpurnia is the maid and she helps take care of the

children. Atticus Finch is defense attorney in their hometown Maycomb County, and the trial he

is working on now is for an African-American man named Tom Robinson being accused of

raping a young white Mayella Ewell. The book discusses racial problems and how the Finch

family deals with them, and also discusses the theme age destroys innocence. In To Kill A

Mockingbird by Harper Lee the theme shown is age destroys innocence, and this can be shown
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in the characterization of Scout Finch, and the two symbols of the Radley House and the cement

put into the knot hole in front of the Radley house.  

The characterization of the main character Scout Finch from the novel To Kill A

mockingbird by Harper helped to develop the theme age destroys innocence.Jem had scissors in

his hand to cut a piece of paper in order to put it by the Radley's house when Atticus caught him

and took them away. Jem and Scout then went outside and saw Dill he asked if they still could

play the game, and Jem was going to say yes even though Atticus just told him that he could not.

Scout then interrupted Jem and told him what Atticus said and how he wouldn't like this, but Jem

carried on anyway. “I was not sure but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always managed

things, thats why other people hated them, and if I started behaving like one I could go off and

find some to play with,” (Lee, 54). This quote shows that Scout likes to listen to her father, but

also likes to play with the boys even thought they do not like listening to Atticus. This shows that

Scout’s beliefs are to obey her father and take his advice. This aligns with her principles, because

after she realizes that Jem and Dill were not going to listen, so she walked away from the

situation. This quote also ties into the theme age destroys innocence, because as Scout is

becoming older she is realizing she can not just play with the boys anymore, and it is time for her

to start acting like a young lady. She makes an effort to make this transition when she goes with

Aunt Alexandra to have lunch with her friends, and learning proper etiquette and how to dress

for these events. Another example of where the characterization of Scout Finch helped to

develop the theme is after Scout has been fighting with Cecil Jacobs this also revealed more

about Scout Finch. Cecil was teasing Scout because her father, Atticus Finch, was defending

Tom Robinson in a trial where he was accused of raping a young girl. Nobody in the town
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thought that it was right that Atticus was rightfully defending Tom Robinson, so the children and

Atticus were often given a hard time. “Atticus had promised me he would wear me out if he had

ever heard of me fighting anymore I was too old and too big to for such childish things, and the

sooner I learned to hold in the better off everybody would be. I soon forgot,” (Lee, 119).

Somethings we learn about Scout from this quote is that she has a fiery attitude, and that she is

not afraid to disagree with her father. You can see this after she describes how much trouble she

will get into if she were to get into another fight and how at the end she states “I soon forgot,” .

This shows that Scout still got into fights even after her father told her not to. A principle that

can be seen in this quote that Scout processes is that she is not afraid of the consequences of her

actions.When Jem, Scout, and Dill all sneak out of their homes this also helps reveal more about

Scout’s character, and helps with the development of the theme.Jem and Scout realize that

Atticus is not in the house anymore and are curious to see where he went. The children find him

outside of the town’s jailhouse where Atticus’s client Tom Robinson is being kept. They realize

that Atticus is staying there to protect Tom from what the other town’s people may do. Scout

also decides to be like her father and defend the people that can not defend themselves as seen in

this quote.“Don’t you touch him! I kicked the man swiftly barefooted I was surprised to see to

see him fall back in real pain. I intended to kick his shin but aimed too high,” ( Lee, 204). This

quote also reveals that Scout is very feisty and she is not afraid of what will happen even if she

she is defending herself against an older man. This is shown were Scout kicks the man with all of

her strength and he falls back in pain and she is surprised that she is really that strong. This

shows that her beliefs are that even if you are small you still have the power to stand up for

yourself no matter who it is. In this quote her principles and her values do align because she
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values standing up for herself as seen all throughout the novel, and her principle shows this when

she kicks the older man.

In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee The Radley House symbolism helps to reveal

the theme. At the beginning of the novel Scout is describing Maycomb County, and everyone

who lives in it. She then goes into great detail about how the Radley house is the house owned by

mysterious people that the town’s people do not understand. “A negro would not pass the Radley

place at night, he would cut across to the sidewalk opposite and whistle as he walked. The

Maycomb school grounds adjoined the back of the Radley lot; from the Radley chicken yard tall

pecan trees shook their fruit into the school yard, but the nuts lay untouched by children; Radley

pecans would kill you. A baseball hit into the Radley yard was a lost ball no questions asked,”

(Lee, 11). The Radley house is a concrete symbol for the abstract meaning of fear and mystery.

This can be seen in the quote when it states how the children at Scout’s school believe that the

pecans that drop from the Radley’s tree are poisonous.This conclusion can be made because,

there is a fear of the unknown all throughout the world, and in the case of the novel the unknown

is the Radley house. This unknowingness is because the Radley house has been reserved for so

long the town’s people only know that to fear the Radley house. This fear shown by the children

comes from the uncertainty of the Radley house. This uncertainty the children present is also

connected to the theme age destroys innocence. As the children are young and innocent the

adults always told them horrible things about the Radley house and the people inside, but as the
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children age they come to the realization that the Radley house is not as horrible as it was made

out to be. The symbol of the Radley house helps to develop the theme because the novel often

exhibits good and evil throughout the novel for example the Tom Robinson case, and in this

quote you can see how the town’s people really don’t know much about the Radley family, so

they automatically assume they are evil. The symbol of the knot hole filled also helps to reveal

the theme. As Scout and Jem headed home from school the children found various items such as

soap dolls (a boy and a girl), a ball of twine, and a few more in this tree in front of the Radley’s

house. “Jem was facing me when he looked up, and I saw him go stark white. Someone had

filled our hole with cement .’Mr. Radley, ah-did you put cement in that hole in that tree down

yonder?’ ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I filled it up.’” (Lee, 83). The tree from this quote is a symbol for how

secluded the Radley house is. This can be seen when Mr. Radley put cement inside of the hole

where Jem and Scout were communicating with who is later found to be Boo Radley. I came to

this conclusion after I read the novel and realized that Mr. Radley does not want anyone learning

about his son, Boo Radley, and that he would do almost anything to be sure that this occur. The

symbol of the knot hole filled with cement helps to develop the theme of innocence. As said

above it was later found that Boo Radley was the person who was leaving all of these things for

Jem and Scout and this was a kind and innocent act presented by Boo Radley. After Mr. Radley
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discovers the form of communication between Boo and the children he almost immediately

closes off that, so Boo can not get any contact with the outside world.

The theme shown in ​To Kill A Mockingbird​ by Harper Lee is age destroys innocence,

examples of this theme can be shown in the characterization of Scout Finch, and the two symbols

of the Radley House and the cement put into the knot hole of the tree in front of the Radley

house. Throughout the book the theme age destroys innocence is shown as Scout goes from

being an innocent 1st grader to being a 3rd grader that attends a trial on a man being accused of

rape. In the novel it shows how a small town like Maycomb deals with racial disputes and how

they interact with each other when they disagree with each other. In the quote "I'd rather you shot

at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if

you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." (Lee, 119), it shows how Atticus

believes in innocence and how others in the town believe in innocence, when Scout goes to Miss.

Maudie and asks about the mockingbird. The theme age destroys innocence can be shown in

humanity, because as everyone gets older they come to different realizations that destroys their

sense of innocence. For example when a teenager finally turns 18 and goes to college they come

to the realization that not everything in life comes easily and it takes hard work, and this destroys

their innocent mind set.

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Work Cited

Lee, Harper​. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York :Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006. Print.

26 March 2018