To Kill a Mockingbird: A Child’s Perspective on Fear and Hatred
Psychologist Jacques Rousseau theorized that children are “inherently innocent,” (Lang), but how does the veil of innocence influence perception? A child is left to absorb the messages of the adults around them, thus molding their otherwise untainted realities. As the mind matures and the cloak of innocence is shed, a child’s ability to understand difficult concepts blossoms. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird utilizes the perspective of the young protagonist, Jean-Louise “Scout” Finch, to portray the fragility of innocence as she discovers how rejection and fear-fueled hatred led to the social demise of two innocent people: Thomas “Tom” Robinson and Arthur “Boo” Radley.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates the evolution of children’s maturity by having the main character Jean-Louise “Scout” Finch tell her story of growing up in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama. Lee quickly establishes that the novel will be narrated from Scout’s perspective and begins with the young girl describing the town of Maycomb, her father’s history with the county, and the rumors she has heard. A key element of Scout’s childhood is the home of Arthur “Boo” Radley. Upon mentioning the Radley house, Scout recounts, “Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom. People said he existed, but Jem and I had never seen him,” (Lee 10). When a new kid, Charles Baker “Dill” Harris, comes to stay with his aunt Miss Rachel Haverford, Scout and her older brother Jeremy “Jem” Finch tell Dill that Boo Radley “dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained,” (Lee 16). Despite admittedly having never seen Boo Radley, the children have dramatized his character as grotesque, murderous, and intrusive. In an analytical article titled “Childhood in To Kill a Mockingbird,” Chris Gonzalez analyses Scout’s changing perspective toward the events and stories within Maycomb, Alabama. Regarding the initial statements about Boo Radley, Gonzalez proposes, “As a result of not knowing (or seeing) him, the Finch children and Dill believe Boo is more monster than human, letting their imagination get the better of them.” Thus, Gonzalez calls attention to the fact that although children are innocent, they also ignorantly contribute to systematic rejection, as seen in the myth of Boo Radley.
Sequentially, Harper Lee carefully connects the legend of Arthur “Boo” Radley with the trial of Thomas “Tom” Robinson, a young black man convicted for allegedly assaulting a young woman named Mayella Ewell. To elucidate the accusations against Tom Robinson, a young, poor, white woman named Mayella Ewell asks Tom to do chores around her family’s house. However, her lonely situation leads her to make sexual advances toward Tom Robinson, but he refuses and runs from the Ewell house. When Mayella’s father, Bob Ewell, discovers his daughter’s intentions, he physically and sexually assaults her until she is bruised and bloody. Thus, the false accusations against Tom Robinson come about for two reasons: Mayella wants to shift the guilt and rejection she feels onto Tom, and Bob wants to shift the blame for the sexual assault onto Tom. Similarly, when Scout first mentions Boo Radley on page ten of Lee’s novel, she paraphrases a series of morbid events that were associated with Boo “although the culprit was Crazy Addie…” While the crimes were committed by Crazy Addie, Scout remembers that “people still looked at the Radley house, unwilling to discard their initial suspicions.” This phenomenon was analyzed by Robert Evans in his article “To Kill a Mockingbird,” where he correlates Scout Finch’s perspective of the Radley house to Tom Robinson’s trial. He highlights, “… the fact that Boo is falsely suspected of crimes he does not commit… even when presented with plausible contrary evidence… help foreshadow the later and similarly false accusations against Tom Robinson…”
As Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird continues, the people of Maycomb become increasingly tense toward Atticus Finch, who has been appointed to defend the young, black Thomas “Tom” Robinson. Unfortunately, the adults’ feelings of hatred and rejection [toward Tom] trickle down to their children, who begin to tease and/or bully Scout and Jem. On more than one occasion, Scout’s anger and pride lead her to fight the bullies, although she undoubtedly does not understand a few of their insults. In fact, in chapter eleven of the novel, Scout asks her father, “Atticus… what exactly is a nigger-lover,” (Lee 114). This gut-wrenching question serves as an indicator of Scout’s innocence; she does not understand the most insulting phrase of the time (1930’s). Notably, the young bullies likely do not understand the phrase either, but they are soaking up and repeating the insults they hear from their elder family members. Ultimately, the string of parent-child interactions throughout To Kill a Mockingbird highlights that a parent is responsible for defiling their child’s innocent reality. Nonetheless, Tom Robinson’s trial progresses and becomes the townspeople’s focus in part two (beginning with chapter twelve) of Harper Lee’s novel. In a report titled “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Harold Bloom paraphrases the novel whilst expanding on different elements of the story. Specifically, he analyzes the perspectives of Scout and Jem Finch when they discover that Tom Robinson has been wrongfully convicted. As interpreted by Harold Bloom, “[In chapter twenty-one] When Tom is pronounced guilty, Scout is dizzy; but Jem, who remains hyper-conscious, weeps through the night and cannot eat the next morning…” He elaborates, “…Scout's daze is engendered from her lack of understanding and the fact that she has, just minutes before, woken up from a nap on the Reverend Sykes's shoulder. Jem, on the other hand, finds himself confronted for the first time with the wrongs of the world.” Essentially, Tom Robinson’s conviction marks the moment when the Finch children’s veil of innocence is removed and the unjust reality of Maycomb, Alabama is revealed.
Furthermore, while Jem and Scout are experiencing social rejection due to their affiliation with the Robinson trial, their preconceived notions of Arthur “Boo” Radley are challenged. Throughout the early chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird, the children find gifts in a knothole of a tree in front of the Radley home. Most notably, in chapter seven, Scout remembers “…our knot-hole stopped us again… I pulled out two small images carved in soap. One was a figure of a boy, the other wore a crude dress.” After inspecting the figures, Jem states “These are us…” (Lee 79-80). Despite the children’s curiosity and suspicion, they do not identify Boo Radley as the gift giver until the last three chapters of the novel, when he saves their lives. As summary, the children are on their way home from a school fair when a mysterious figure comes out from the shadows and attacks them, breaking Jem’s arm in the process (Lee 351). Fortunately, an unknown individual intervenes and carries Jem’s unconscious body home, but Scout is filled with fear, repeatedly asking whether her brother is dead (Lee 352-355). The town doctor, Mr. Reynolds, and the sheriff, Mr. Tate, rush to the Finch house to investigate the situation. Then, Mr. Tate tells Atticus, “Bob Ewell’s lyin’ on the ground…with a kitchen knife stuck up under his ribs. He’s dead…” (Lee 357). Although adults do not have the same innocent perspective of the world as the children, they are still left at a loss for words when they comprehend that there are truly evil people in their town of Maycomb. Scout especially cannot grasp the gravity of the situation and crawls up into Atticus’s lap, where she recounts the events of the night. Moreover, Scout is asked to name the individual who saved them and carried Jem home, and it is at this moment she points at a man leaning against his bedroom wall with, “sickly white hands that have never seen the sun,” (Lee 362). With immediate realization, Scout bursts into tears and says “Hey, Boo...” (Lee 362). Although everybody in the room held ignorantly preconceived notions about Arthur “Boo” Radley for years, their wall of rejection is replaced with appreciation; Boo saved the children’s lives and killed the evil Bob Ewell. Finally, Scout sheds her innocence and acknowledges, “I felt very old…Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them,” (Lee 374).
Conclusively, Scout’s initial innocence and idealism are challenged by the racism and cruelty she witnesses during the trial of Thomas “Tom” Robinson. Similarly, the evolution of her relationship with Arthur “Boo” Radley symbolizes a loss of innocence as she goes from seeing Boo as a monster to recognizing his humanity. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird elaborately uses the perspective of Jean-Louise “Scout” Finch to illustrate the loss of innocence as she becomes aware of the hatred, fear, rejection, and injustice in her small town. However, psychologist Jean-Jacques Rosseau once stated, “We can never put ourselves in the shoes of children; we cannot fathom their thoughts; we lend them ours…”
Works Cited
Bloom, Harold. “To Kill a Mockingbird.” To Kill a Mockingbird, New Edition, Chelsea House, 2010. Bloom’s Literature, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=103176&itemid=WE54&articleId=2176.
Evans, Robert. “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The American Novel, Facts on File, 2021. Bloom’s Literature, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=103176&itemid=WE54&articleId=484244.
Gonzalez, Chris. “Childhood in To Kill a Mockingbird.” Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature, Facts on File, 2020. Bloom’s Literature, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=103176&itemid=WE54&articleId=38951.
“Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes.” Citatis.com, 2017, citatis.com/a8490/. Accessed 16 Feb. 2025.
Lang, Diana. “Early 1800s: Rousseau.” Iastate.pressbooks.pub, 18 May 2020, iastate.pressbooks.pub/parentingfamilydiversity/chapter/early-1800s-rousseau/.
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. 1960. New York, Grand Central Publishing, Dec. 1982.
Please, forgive the improper formatting.