In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the actions and thoughts of the children show the uncorrupted innocence of a child's mind. One of the three children mentioned frequently in the novel is Jem, who grows out of his childhood innocence once certain factors induce him to see the world as it truly is. The Finch children's young friend, Dill, shows his innocence, aside his two new friends, when he deals with Boo Radley. Most obviously, though, Scout Finch (a.k.a Jean Louise Finch) demonstrates true innocence in her many actions involving both Boo Radley and Tom Robinson. All three of the children have a part in the way that the theme of childhood innocence is portrayed in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
Jem, the oldest of the three children, starts the novel on the same level of innocence as Scout and Dill do, but he gradually progresses to a new level of awareness throughout the book. His wild imagination definitely contributes to the trio's ideas about Boo, such as when he told the other two about what Stephanie Crawford told him, "[she] woke up one night and saw him looking straight through the window at her said his head was like a skull looking at her." The actions that Jem involves himself in, such as rolling Scout down the hill in a tire toward the Radley house, provide physical proof of the trio's childish suspicions of Boo. Jem's most apparent action has to be the night that he went up to the porch of the Radley house and then ran screaming down the street after he saw someone lurking in the shadows, as if he believed whoever it was would hurt him. Although Jem is most likely the most mature of the three, he also acts in a way that shows the innocence of an uncorrupted childhood mind.
Dill, the Finch's young friend from Mississippi, plays almost as large a part in proving this theme as the story's main narrator, Scout. One of Dill's most influential parts in the novel was his part in pushing Jem to go touch the Radley house, and hence, prove that he wasn't chicken.
