Motif

To Kill a Mockingbird Motifs
Nickoles Perez

One motif I found is the loss of innocence upon Jem. On pg 84 right before chapter 8 it has Jem questioning Atticus about the Radley place's tree and is curious if it's dying because Mr. Radley filled the hole with cement. Atticus denies it but when Jem asked why Mr. Radley had said it was Atticus said "Well maybe it is. I’m sure Mr. Radley knows more about his trees than we do." So Jem stays outside for a for a long period of time and when he finally decided to head back inside scout realizes that he had been sobbing the whole time. This shows Jem that adults will lie to children and that they aren't always telling them the truthful or legit reason for why they do certain things. This shows Jems loss of innocence. He now knows better than to always trust adults and not to look upon them as “super heroes”.

The second motif I found was Courage in Atticus when he takes the task of defending Tom Robinson wrongly accused of rape.” The only thing we've got is a black man's word against the Ewells'. The evidence boils down to you-did-I-didn't. The jury couldn't possibly be expected to take Tom Robinson's word against the Ewells,'" Atticus solemnly explains this to his brother (chapter 9). Atticus doubt that he will win the case but Atticus knows that Tom is innocent and that he is determined to fight for him, his justice and most importunately his freedom, Atticus is a mind set man will defend for what is1 right. He doesn’t care whether they believe it him or not, he just wants Toms voice to be heard amongst the town of Maycomb. "That boy might go to the chair, but he's not going till the truth's told" (chapter 15) This also shows a great deal of Racial Inequality of how the court and the town is wrongly accusing Tom and is trying to sentence him to death.