Tkam Theme In To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird (TKAM) is a phenomenal book that teaches life lessons that will resonate with any reader for the rest of their life. It’s a book that has two main themes supported by almost every character that was worth noting. One main theme was walking in somebodies shoes, because of the poor times of the depression, it was hard to understand the ways somebody lived. The other main theme was Innocence, which a mockingbird represented. The main characters, Jem, Scout, and Dill, all have to encounter these main themes at some point in their lives in the story. Innocence is like a fragile gem, cherished and worshipped. Until by some mishap or mistake, it’s broken, and once it shatters, it’s impossible to piece back together. (Thesis)

Innocence is a main theme in TKAM and it is shown by many things in the story whether it be symbolism, action, or a character. The mockingbird is the main symbol in the story and it shows a lot of meaning to the characters. The mockingbird is symbolism for innocence because as said in the book “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird”(Lee 90). So the bird has no evil or demented thoughts to it, it’s only pure, that is why the bird is a sign of innocence. The main characters in the story are all mockingbirds and later even start to comprehend on their own the meaning behind the mockingbird as shown by Scout “It’s like killing a mockingbird, right?”(Lee). She is only pure and knows no evil yet until tainted by it. The actions happening throughout the entire book provide plenty of opportunity’s for the characters to grow, learn, and show the innocence in which they possess and could break. The first main event transpiring throughout the story is Boo Radley, who himself is a sign of innocence because of how innocent he is to the world from his seclusion. The second event was with the trial, none of the children really saw why it mattered if Tom was black or white, Jem thought it was a place of justice and since Tom had pretty much been proven innocent he would have gotten away, however he was shown as guilty. Scout is made out to be the main sense of innocence in the story and it comes out many times, which often times helps whatever situation she’s in. First is when she starts the events with Walter Cunningham in school. At first she stands up for him in a way and says that he can’t take anything that he pays back and she doesn’t fully understand the struggle that he goes through every day. When she brings him home she picks up on the maturity of the conversation between Walter and her father seems to confuse her a little, it seems she was unsure what made him grow up so fast. Second, everything that had happened before the trial had shown her coming out with a lot more questions than answers. Before the trial she was hearing kids at school talking bad about Atticus, she knew what they were saying wasn’t nice however she didn’t know what they were saying meant, because they were saying things like “nigger-lover” which she was unsure about. Also Miss Dubose adds on to all the insults they were getting and the one that was never affected by all the insults was Scout, which you can infier was mainly because she didn’t understand it. Third is in the court she starts to show her innocence with her reaction to the event. When she was watching she said she knew what was going on however during small amounts of time when she spoke up, she was …show more content…
In To Kill a Mockingbird the characters went through hardships where they were too innocent to conceive what truly was going on, their gem was pure and whole-hearted. In the end, not every gem is a diamond, it can and will be broken or shattered, whether it be by a mistake or on purpose, and no matter how hard it falls the only thing that will be able to change the world from it is a diamond, because a