Innocence to Experience

Rating: ★★★★☆

To kill a mocking bird by Harper Lee

Innocence to Experience

     The tears of anger and fury fell down my cheeks while I was reading this book. Of course, everyone must have heard about racial discrimination or problems with poverty at least once and so did I. Surely, I was offended by the thoughts of distinctions, but it was such an abstract idea that it never came close to me. However, this wonderful book written by Harper Lee helped me feel the fury from deep inside and eventually provoked me enough to release my tears.

     The characters and plots are well established and the idea that a child, Jean Louise Scout, is the narrator helped people see the world filled with hypocrisy and lies with innocence. The three children, Scout, Jem, and Dill, believed that the world they lived in was filled with the truth but as they experience new events, they learn more and find the underlying evils. They learn what real courage is from the encounter with Mrs. Dubose and from Atticus, their father. Also they face the terrible prejudice of the people in Maycomb through the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man. Plus there are Gothic elements such as Boo Radley and the incidence with Bob Ewell which makes the story more interesting. Later in the end of the story, the author lets the readers’ hope rise in that the three kids could still keep their innocence and earn experience unlike the other characters in Maycomb.

     This story was based on a real event from Harper Lee’s childhood. The part about the trial was based on the one of nine young black men arrested in Scottsboro, Alabama, in 1931 after two white girls accused them of rape. Later one of the girls, retracted her testimony and most of the men were freed after several new trials. Tom Robinson, in the story, was convicted for raping a white girl, an Ewell. Atticus successfully showed the court how this was not true and the real truth lying beneath. However, due to social codes, the jury convicted him and later while trying to run away, Tom Robinson got shot and he died. I guess the fact that it was based on a real event evoked my disgust towards the trial more. I couldn’t believe how prejudiced people could be towards racial differences. This was a great book that helps readers take time in thinking about racial discrimination and about the innocence of children and the underlying truth of the world we live in today.