Loss of Innocence in to Kill a Mocking Bird

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Joseph Tasos Ms. Talbot ENG2D1 June 10th, 2014 Loss of innocence in To Kill A Mocking Bird In to kill A MockingBird the loss of innocence is revealed through the characters of Dill, Jem, and Scout. They have lost their innocence as a result of coming to a sudden realization that life is not always fair. Even though dill, Jem, and Scout realize that life is not always fair, they learn the important lesson that many things are not fair but in order to move through life they need to move on and keep going. When Scout begins her first day of school, she is introduced to her new teacher Miss Caroline and her new classmates. When Miss Caroline asks scout to read aloud she discovers that Scout seems to be more literate than the rest of the students. Miss Caroline does not like the fact that Scout is ahead of the class and demands that Atticus stops teaching Scout to read. Miss Caroline testifies, “Your father does not know how to teach.” (Lee 17) Scout concludes that she had never had anyone teach her to read so well because Atticus had always come home late from work and was too tired to do anything but read in his chair. Through this event Scout learns about the harshness, and unfairness of some people that live in the world. Although Miss Caroline’s comment is unfair, scout realizes that many things are not fair but she can’t always dwell on the past which is the message that Harper Lee is communicating to us. Following this occurrence, on the night that Miss Maudies house caught on fire, Scout is so distracted by the fire and all the commotion that she did not acknowledged that Boo Radley put a blanket around her shoulders to keep her warm. When Atticus confronts Scout about the blanket, she is confused as to how she got the blanket until Atticus states, “ Boo Radley. You were so busy looking at the fire you didn’t know it when he put the blanket

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