The story is told by Scout, a mature narrator looking back on herself as a child. Scout’s naivety and childish view of the world is highlighted by the reader, often understanding events better than Scout herself.
The first example of Scout moving from innocence to experience is in Chapter 2, when Scout unwillingly begins school. Her fellow pupil, Walter Cunningham, refuses to borrow some money from Miss Caroline to buy lunch, however Miss Caroline will not accept this refusal. Scout enters the conversation and tries to explain this matter but is consequently punished. She then retaliates, resulting in a fight with Waler which Jem has to stop. In an act of kindness, Jem invites Walter to lunch at home. This is an example of innocence because Scout, although she had good intentions, was penalized and thought that this was unfair. When Walter returns with the Finches for lunch, Scout comments on Walter’s table manners and I once again scolded but this time by Calpurnia. This is another example of innocence as Scout finds the way Walter eats unusual and was only curious. Prior to these events happening, Scout had never known that it was improper to make fun of or judge a guest of the house. In her innocence, she had never before realized this behavior was inappropriate. However, become experiences as Scout learns never to repeat these actions.
In Chaper 5, Scout starts to feel excluded by Jem and Dill. This may be because she is younger or because she is female, but she substitutes their company with Miss Maudie’s. On one occasion, it seems she does not fully understand the implications of her conversations with Miss Maudie. She thinks that Miss Maudie has accused Atticus of drinking. Scout also misunderstands Miss Maudie’s conversation with Miss Stephanie. As well as showing Scout’s innocence, these two instances become opportunities for humour.
Another example of innocence and experience in the novel is in chapter 6, on the last night of the summer holidays, the children approach the Radley house to look through the window, during one of their games. As Jem advances to the steps a shadow crosses him and the children run away. Jem catches his trousers on the fence and rips them off as a sound of gun shot is heard. Later that night, Jem returns to fetch hs trousers from the fence and as he tells Scout in Chapter 7, he finds that they have been roughly mended and folded and placed back on the fence. This action will force the children to consider Boo as a real person rather than a myth.
In Chapter 10, a mad dog is spotted in the street. Calpurnia phones for the town sheriff and Atticus makes sure that all the neighbours stay in their houses. Heck Tate, the sheriff, hands the gun to Atticus, and in one shot the dog is dead. Scout and Jem had previously wondered what special skills their father had. They now learn something new about their father and this is an experience where their respect for him increases. This is a crucial time to have gained the children’s respect – just before the trial begins.
However, the main example of innocence in the novel is also in Chapter 10, when the children are given air rifles for Christmas. Atticus says ‘Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird’. The mockingbird represents innocence. Like hunters who kill mockingbirds for sport, people kill innocence, or other people who are innocent, without thinking about what they are doing. Atticus stands firm in his defense of innocence and urges his children not to shoot mockingbirds both literally and figuratively. This is also in the title of To Kill a Mockingbird and it has very little literal connection to the plot, but it carries a great deal of symbolic weight. In this story of innocence destroyed by evil, the ‘mockingbird’ comes to represent the idea of innocence. Thus, to kill a mockingbird is to destroy innocence.
