Category: Themes

How Does the Loss of Innocence Relate To Gaining Knowledge?

Many times, when we lose our innocence, we are learning about something we didn’t know before. Before reading the book, I honestly thought that these two topics had nothing to with each other. After reading the book, I realized that it had so much to do with each other. Since the book is in the eyes of Scout, we get to see her journey of losing innocence the most. A scene that pops into my head when I think of gaining knowledge and losing innocence is when Scout is introduced to what the word “rape” means. She firsts asks Calpurnia, but Calpurnia directs Scout to her father, because she probably doesn’t want to say something wrong and have Scout take it a different way. When she asked Atticus, he said “rape was carnal knowledge of a female by force and without consent.” At this moment, we experience Scout losing her innocence. She now knows what’s wrong with rape and why the Tom Robinson case is so big and important.

A time in which Jem loses his innocence is when he finds out that Tom was accused guilty. He learned that no matter how little evidence there is, the world will still judge you based on your skin color, and that definitely lost his innocence. In that moment, he found out a little about the outside world, and how cruel it can be. In chapter 21, it says, “I peeked at Jem: his hands were white from gripping the balcony rail, and his shoulders jerked as if each “guilty” was a separate stab between them.” We can see how much this affected Jem in this quote, especially because of how confident he was that they’d win the case.

A moment in the book where Jem and Scout both lose their innocence is when they find out that Boo Radley isn’t what they think he is. In the book, especially in the beginning, Boo is described as scary, freaky, and haunted, almost like a mythical monster. Later, they find out he is the opposite; he proves himself to be charming, loving, and caring. The Finch kids finding out Boo’s true personality is kind of like a kid finding out Santa isn’t real; Boo’s scariness the kids thought he had is not real. It all starts off with the small acts of kindness her did for the kids, like folding and sewing Jem’s pants and leaving little things in the tree hole to stabbing someone to protect their lives. Scout says, “One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.” In this quote, she understands why Boo never wanted to come out which leads him to certain reputation

In an article called ‘Too much information destroys childhood innocence’, it talks about what too much information can do to a child. It specifically says, “We know it for we see it everywhere – the effects of ‘too much information’, much of which is delivered via an unregulated Internet, on mental health, on self-image, on diet, self-harming and so on.” For example, if a girl is exposed to what society wants girls to look like, most likely, she will suddenly want to become that. That ruins her innocence because she is not her own person anymore; she might be putting herself through extreme measures to try and be some she isn’t. Scout is going through this in the book, with her own personal experiences.

– Shahhed Abuhamdeh

By knowing things, you can try and use what you know to tolerate things because if you don’t

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the characters Jem and Scout are always learning new things from their father Atticus. Throughout the book, Atticus, Jem, and Scout are tolerant of many things because of what they know.

For example, at the beginning of the novel, Scout realizes that Mr. Cunningham owes Atticus so he pays him with food.

“I asked Atticus if Mr.Cunningham would ever pay us.

‘Not in money,’ Atticus said, ‘but before the year’s out I’ll have been paid. You watch.’…

‘Why does he pay you like that?’ I asked.

‘Because that’s the only way he can pay me. He has no money.”(Lee 27)

This quote shows that Atticus is tolerant to the idea of Mr. Cunningham paying him with food instead of money when he knows what he’s going through. Atticus’ knowledge of the Cunningham family leads him to tolerate the way they are paying him.

Another example of knowledge affecting tolerance is when Atticus passes by Mrs. Dubose’s porch and she was being rude to him but he responded by greeting her and wishing her a good afternoon. He also let Jem read to her on her deathbed and thought of her as a brave lady. He knew that she was trying to stop her morphine addiction and Atticus knew it was hard for her

“Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew.” (Lee 149)

In this quote, Atticus is explaining to Jem and Scout that even though she was rude to most people, she was still brave and you have to fully see a person to know how they are like.

Knowing that the black church has people that won’t tolerate white children inside the church, Atticus still tolerated the fact that Calpurnia took Jem and Scout to the black church.

“Lula stopped, but she said, “You ain’t got no business bringin’ white chillun here—they got their church, we got our’n. It is our church, ain’t it, Miss Cal?”(Lee 158)

This quote is an example of how one of the black people didn’t tolerate white kids in their church.

According to The Economist, 

 The strongest predictor of tolerance, however, is the level of education one has received. College graduates accept outsiders and their views 83% of the time, whereas for those with only a high-school degree the acceptance rate is 64%.

This data shows that knowledge does affect tolerance. I think that if you know more, then you understand more which can train you to be more tolerant of different groups of people.

Written by Gena