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In Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird, what quotes help represent innocence within various characters?

Throughout the majority of the novel, Scout's innocence is depicted in her inability to understand certain derogatory phrases and adult concepts. Scout's innocence is also portrayed in the fact that she believes everything Jem says. Some of Scout's most explicit questions include:



"What exactly is a nigger-lover?" (Lee 67).


"What’s rape?" (Lee 84).



In Chapter 2, Miss Caroline tells Scout that somebody had to have taught her how to read because she wasn't born with the ability to read. Scout responds by saying,



"Jem says I was. He read in a book where I was a Bullfinch instead of a Finch. Jem says my name’s really Jean Louise Bullfinch, that I got swapped when I was born and I’m really a—" (Lee 12).



Scout believes her older brother's ridiculous story and actually thinks that she was born knowing how to read.


Jem is also depicted as being innocent throughout the majority of the novel. In Chapter 7, Jem explains to Scout what he is learning in the sixth grade. Scout mentions,



"he went through a brief Egyptian Period that baffled me—he tried to walk flat a great deal, sticking one arm in front of him and one in back of him, putting one foot behind the other. He declared Egyptians walked that way; I said if they did I didn’t see how they got anything done, but Jem said they accomplished more than the Americans ever did, they invented toilet paper and perpetual embalming, and asked where would we be today if they hadn’t?" (Lee 37).



Jem's belief that Egyptian art was an accurate depiction of how they walked portrays his childhood innocence.


Another significant moment that depicts Jem's innocence takes place during Tom's trial. In Chapter 21, Jem comments



"He’s not supposed to lean, Reverend, but don’t fret, we’ve won it...Don’t see how any jury could convict on what we heard—" (Lee 128).



Jem doesn't take into consideration the fact that the jury is racist, and their prejudice will prevent justice from being administered. Following Tom's verdict, Jem, Scout, and Dill lose their childhood innocence after witnessing racial injustice.


Dill, Jem and Scout's best friend, is also considered innocent throughout the novel. In Chapter 14, he tells Scout that they should have a baby. Scout wonders where they would get a baby and mentions,



"There was a man Dill had heard of who had a boat that he rowed across to a foggy island where all these babies were; you could order one—" (Lee 88).



Dill's belief that babies come from a mysterious foggy island where people can order them depicts his childhood innocence.


Arthur "Boo" Radley is another innocent character. He is Maycomb's most reclusive citizen, and when he saves Jem and Scout from Bob Ewell, Sheriff Tate refuses to disclose his heroics to the community. Tate says,



"To my way of thinkin’, Mr. Finch, taking the one man who’s done you and this town a great service an’ draggin’ him with his shy ways into the limelight—to me, that’s a sin. It’s a sin and I’m not about to have it on my head. If it was any other man it’d be different" (Lee 169).


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