Death of Life

In my essay Death of Life I have proven that in the story House Taken Over the house represents life and the house being attacked represents death. The two people in the story are an older couple and I believe death is coming to them. I believe this because in the story the woman really enjoys knitting and when something starts attacking the house she loses her ability to knit. 

Innocence

 

Author's Note: This is my response to To Kill a Mocking Bird. I wanted to focus on the theme of innocence and how it is shown through out the book. I wanted to explain how people of maturity can affect those of innocence both in positive and negative ways.

 Innocence is only a stage.  In the book, To kill a Mocking Bird Jem and Scout are innocent children until struck by evil events.  Carelessly playing in the yard with each other and friends was a daily activity for them until the trials. The trials changed them into children of maturity. They had to see so many events take place that included a lot of racism. Even though they grew up with racism around them they had never seen it so harsh before.  They had to question what was going on and why. Their father told them on page 30,"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." They saw things happen to innocent people that should have never happened. This led to the loss of their innocence. 

Innocence is a state where you have no care in the world, where everyone is your friend and nothing matters but the present. Innocence is mostly displayed in children. Most children grow out of it when they view events that are hard for them to face. Deciding their beliefs and opinions and standing up for what they believe is a change from innocence to maturity. For most it is a time in their life where they grow up and change as a person.

Atticus, Jem and Scout's father, was a man of maturity. When Tom Robinson, a black man, was convicted a crime he didn't do Atticus was the only one in the town who stood up for him and took his side as his lawyer.  When he did this he showed his children that at a point in your life you need to grow and stand up for what you believe in even if the larger percent of the people go the other way. On page 220 he says to his children, "As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it-whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash." Atticus emphasizes that everyone should be treated fairly, and he realizes that his children are old enough -- mature enough-- to learn that lesson.

His children did learn and they were able to make decisions for themselves about their beliefs. Scout, his daughter displayed this when she thought of their unknown mysterious neighbor as a real person and respected him as a human being even if he was slightly different from the people she was used to.  She is the only one out of the three children to meet Boo Radley in person. For the first time he is not in her mind as a creepy neighbor, but a real person.

When Atticus could say that he taught his children the importance of maturity and making decisions, he succeeded in being a father. His children are now mature young adults following in the footsteps of their father.

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