My To Kill a Mockingbird essay was my last major piece in english class that I wrote. I think this is a major piece in my portfolio because it shows how far I have come, and how much of a different student I am because of this class. If I was asked to do this same assignment at the start of the year, I would have had a completely different though process, a different approach and a completely different essay; which probably wouldn't have been as good. This essay shows what I accomplished through the year which is very much!
My Work
When one loses his innocence, he gains understanding of the world around him. Most kids want to believe that adults tell the truth and act with justice and fairness, but as we grow up, we realize this is not always the case. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem loses his innocence by realizing that adults don’t always do the right thing.
Jem, innocent and young, does not doubt when someone older and wiser than him tells him something because he wouldn’t see a reason for someone to lie. When Mr. Radley plugs the cement hole in the tree where the kids have been finding presents, he says it’s because it’s dying; however, Atticus tells him that “that tree is as healthy as you are Jem” (84) Jem is very disappointed. At this moment Jem doesn’t know what was really going on; he doesn’t understand why Mr. Radley would lie to them. Having been raised by Atticus with such truth and honestly Jem expects all grown ups to do the same thing with him. Once Jem thought about it and realized what Mr. Radley was trying to do, he was really upset and “when [Scout] went in the house [and] saw [Jem] had been crying; his face was dirty in [all] the right places” (63). Jem understands that Mr. Radley is destroying the bridge he and Boo had created, and this makes him sad. He feels sorry for Boo, who now has no way of communication when he has tried so hard to reach out to them. Jem’s tears are referred as “silent tears”; this is because he didn’t want Scout to hear him cry and for her to be corrupted with the disappointment and knowledge of how Mr. Radley had lied and destroyed the gap they had bridged. Jem hiding his feelings and the blunt truth that would destroy Scout’s innocence reflects on his heroistic characteristics that developed. This scene just shows how innocent they really are, how they have never seen any bad in the world and now slowly it is all revealing and it’s too much for one little kid to handle.
When Jem first witnesses how people treat others, he doesn’t understand why a person could be guilty when he wasn’t. He thinks to Atticus “they oughta do away with juries. He wasn't guilty in the first place, and they said he was” and Jem knows that’s not right. Jem doesn’t understand that the world isn’t fair and people in the jury didn’t base their verdicts off the truth but off their personal, judgemental, stereotypical, opinions. Atticus tries to keep the children from coming to the court because he knows their innocence won’t be able to understand or handle someone lying and doing the wrong thing. At this moment a piece of Jem’s innocence is stripped away from him and the belief that all people are fair and treated equal in life has dispelled from his memory. Having all this exposed to Jem doesn't stop him, “Jem was born a hero” and it really shows when he says how they “oughta do away with juries” because they said he was guilty when he wasn’t. The innocence that was stripped away from him and showed the real truth of how the world works, didn’t change his perspective, it in fact gave him clarity as he matured. Jem still has the knowledge to know what is right from wrong and he hasn’t been infected by the disease. He is immune.
Jem Scout and Dill all snuck into the courthouse to watch the persecution. After waiting hours and hours patiently, the jury came back into the room. Jem’s innocence made him have a reassuring hope that Tom would win, I mean how could he not? He wasn’t guilty, but they did not know that even if innocent, people might be persecuted as guilty because the world isnt fair. As the judge spoke out… guilty, guilty, guilty… “[Scout] peek 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” (282) Each stab in the back was like his innocence pouring out of him, he didn’t understand. When you're little you never understand the evil in the world until you see it for yourself. The fact that Tom was a different shade of color on his skin; it never clouded his judgement for a split seconds, he always viewed everyone as the same, and just by having this mindset it bridged the gaps in between the two races extremely. What Jem does reminds me of the city Le Sur Lebon. The city saved thousands and hundreds of jews, and they didn’t accept any rewards, memorials, even recognitions because they referred to what they did as not heroic, but what any normal person should do, and that is what a TRUE hero is to me. Someone who does something not to be the hero, get the rewards and recognition, the girl; someone who already does a heroic act because that’s just how they think, how their personality is and their instinct is to do the right thing and that’s exactly how Jem is.
Jem’s innocence is slowly lost In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, as he starts to realize adults don’t always do the right thing. In the world you see adults lie, cheat, steal, do the wrong thing everyday, I mean just turn the morning news on and you see the bad in the world that adults have created. Adults are suppose to be the role models and people we look up to and aspire to be, but really the kids in the world, who haven’t been corrupted by what adults have done, don’t know about the real evil in the world surrounding them, they are the only pure people in the world. After being exposed to the real world, Jem never changes. He becomes the honorable, heroic, gentlemen.