To Kill a Moking Bird

To Kill a Mockingbird

By Harper lee

The book To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee has a lot of different types of motif in the novel. There is a vast variety of motifs in this novel; one type of motif is innocence and the loss of innocence in the children in the book. For example when Jem starts to grow up and become a man. And when Scout learns to see things in others perspective, instead of judging others on how they act.

In the part of the book when Walter Cunningham comes over to the Finches' house for dinner after he gets beat up by Scout. While he was eating dinner with the Finches he did something weird in Scouts point of view. "Walter poured syrup on his vegetables and meat with a generous hand." (pg.29)Walter does not grasp that it is discourteous to just pour syrup on all his food; he does this because he hasn't grown up in the environment the finches have grown up in.

Another instance of innocence and the loss of innocence show up when Jem stops Scout from smashing the roly-poly. "I decided to end things. My hand was going down on him when Jem spoke." (pg 238) This motif shows innocence on Scouts part and the loss of innocence in Jem's part. Scout doesn't know how valuable life really is, and that she shouldn't just end it just for her pleasure even though it is an insect. It is innocence on scout's part because she doesn't understand that she is being cruel. Jem stopped Scout

because he is now