To Kill A Mockingbird

A songbird's melody can evoke happiness in anyone, as can the smiling face of a child. The mockingbird sings for the sake of singing, and an innocent child possesses an innate joyfulness, as natural as instinct. Yet a mockingbird's song dies as easily as innocence. In the beginning of the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout and Jem are portrayed as innocents, uncorrupted by our world of prejudice and racism. Their world is simple, sensible, a child's world. However, by the end of the novel, their world has expanded to enclose the irrational nature of humans. Jem and Scout's growing up is portrayed by a series of events that shatters their innocence as easily as a mockingbird can be silenced.
One of the first chinks in their armor of naivité that protected them was social prejudice. This was introduced to them in the form of Aunt Alexandra. Scout was crushed when Aunt Alexandra sent Atticus to talk to the Scout and Jem. " 'you are not run-of-the-mill people, that you are the product of several generations gentle breeding...try to behave like the little lady and gentleman that you are' " (Lee 133). Scout was upset because he was essentially telling her not to be herself. Aunt Alexandra wanted to change Scout's personality to conform

Scout and Jem were surrounded by racism and prejudice as children, but until they matured more, they didn't see it for what it was. It was part of their environment at the time, and children don't question that. It was simply the way things were, and it wasn't challenged it until something enormously, obviously wrong occurred close to home. That occurrence was Tom Robinson's trial. The way all the black citizens were made to sit in the balcony in the summer, the hottest part of the courthouse, Jem and Scout didn't notice. The way the blacks weren't allowed to sit on juries, they didn't remark on. Dill emotionally pointed out how disrespectfully Mr. Gilmer was treating Tom Robinson, but at first Scout didn't understand what was wrong. But what hit Scout and blew Jem away was the obvious unfairness of the verdict. Mayella and Bob Ewell were in the wrong; Tom had not willingly touched Mayella, and the whole courtroom knew it. They simply chose to ignore it. To all but one on th!

Another way Aunt Alexandra introduced Jem and Scout to social prejudice was how she wouldn't let Scout play with Walter Cunningham. Because the Cunninghams were farmers that lived out of town, Aunt Alexandra regarded Walter to be socially inferior, and said she would only let him in the house on business. " 'Because he's trash, that's why you can't play with him (Lee 225).' " This exposure to social prejudice struck Scout harder, because this time around, Atticus couldn't say, forget it. There was no one to tell her that it would be okay, the rest of the world may judge people by their social class and place in society, but we don't. When Aunt Alexandra leaves, Atticus and the children may not go by her social ideals, but Scout realized that this is the way much of her society thinks, and more innocence is lost by this revelation