Witnessing The Truth Of Innocence
DescriptionAn essay about innocence and the theme of coming of age from different points of view.
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ImageMark Sullivan
Coming of age is a universal theme that displays how one character evolves and adapts to the world around them, thus transforming them into their future self. Three books that greatly demonstrate this theme are To Kill A Mockingbird (TKAM) by Harper Lee, The House On Mango Street (HOMS) by Sandra Cisneros, and Beneath A Scarlet Sky by Mark T. Sullivan. Lee's book is about a family in the 1930s, where discrimination and racial tensions are at an all-time high. Jem Finch, brother of main character Scout in TKAM, watches over the issues of his time and learns the hard truths of his home. HOMS is a book rich with vignettes that exhibit stories told about a young teen named Esperanza, who faces the challenges of sexism. As the story continues, she begins to see the dark truths of the world, including the blatant misogyny of her home, and learns that the place she lives in is not as welcoming as she first hoped. Beneath A Scarlet Sky is a story about Pino Lella, a teen living in fascist Italy in 1944. He has many troubling experiences, discovering the worst aspects of humanity, as our species slowly destroy itself in war. All these books have remarkable character development, greatly describing the thoughts and emotions the characters feel as they get older. As Jem, Esperanza, and Pino "come of age", they are illuminated by the disheartening truth that the world is an unfair and merciless place, but that they can make the best of it if they try.Throughout To Kill A Mockingbird, we see Jem change his perception of the environment surrounding him. Jem Finch lived in Maycomb County, Alabama during the Great Depression. He lives with his younger sister, Scout, and his father, Atticus. And as the story progresses, others move into his home, including his Aunt Alexandra. Within the pages of TKAM, we see Jem mature through the eyes of Scout. He goes from an innocent little boy, to an independent and growing tween, to a protective and empathetic young man. Much of that evolution takes place for many reasons, but Atticus' role as a lawyer for the wrongfully convicted Tom Robinson, a young black man accused of raping Mayella Ewell, definitely excelled it forward. Jem takes after Atticus and sees things in his favor, but the citizens of Maycomb hate him. He and Scout sympathize with Tom's case, and it helps them discover the horrible reality of their town: it's racist. So when Mr. Robinson is pronounced as guilty of said crime, no one is suprised, but Jem is bitter. “His face was streaked with angry tears as we made our way through the cheerful crowd. ‘It ain’t right,’ he muttered” (Lee 254). Scout acknowledges her brother’s care for this case. She even mentions the fact that he wouldn’t have cared so much before. He is now a bystander to pure bigotry, and understands how cruel people are. Jem can’t comprehend how the nicest people can also be the most unfair. Though this isn’t the first time individuals illustrate discrimination in front of Jem in this story. Later in the book, Aunt Alexandra is scolding Scout on how she shouldn’t hang out with Walter Cunningham, a boy in her class who is less fortunate than themselves. It leaves her in tears, “... and led me sobbing in fury to his bedroom” (Lee 301). Scout doesn’t understand why she can’t hang out with the boy, but Jem at this point in the novel has matured enough to know that Aunt Alexandra, just like everybody else in the world, is rude and biased towards people they don’t like. Jem doesn’t agree with these unwritten principles, yet has to learn to accept the fact that the world is a harsh place. This greatly contributes to his coming-of-age sequence, as he can finally understand the world he lives in. Though it also reminds him that he, along with other like him, need to be the change they want to see. Because if they don't, the world will never evolve, will never become better.The House On Mango Street follows Esperanza as she learns about the mess up world of male dominance she lives within. Her full name Esperanza Cordero, she is a young Hispanic girl that lives in poverty. Attending Catholic school with nuns, she lives with her many siblings and parents, experiencing an extremely conservative and old-fashioned worldview. Esperanza is directly exposed to physical and sexual abuse multiple times throughout the vignettes and stories she shares. Having friends that are victims and being a victim herself, she can wrap her head around the sad truth that men have more power over women. Her friend Sally, a quiet and cute young lady, is beaten at home by her father. “He forgot he was her father between the buckle and the belt” (Cisneros 93). Her father had whipped her after he learned that Sally had been talking to a boy. To her, a father should never treat a woman this way, especially not his own daughter. Unfortunately, Sally is likely to live like this for the rest of her life, not understanding the concept of sexism and nonviolence. It's all she has ever known, and despite Esperanza's attempts to help, she is just a witness who is still a child and has no power to stop it. The one thing that has happened is that men now give her anxiety, making her nervous when she is left alone with them. Absolutely no women should be condoned to act a certain way in order to not be abused. Though sadly, Esperanza is too far gone, understandably unable to sympathize with any and all men, in the fear that she will be harmed by them. "He grabs my face with both hands and kisses me hard on the mouth and doesn’t let go” (Cisneros 55). She now isn’t able to walk the streets without shaking, checking her shoulder, and feeling timid. The first and only man who at a glance seemed nice, who was able to talk to her and have a pleasant conversation with her, betrayed her in this scene. She was minding her own buisness when someone came up to her, grabbed her, and assaulted her. Her innocence was being stripped away by the horrible people around her, similar to Jem from TKAM. They both identify how people treat one another; they both live in a world that wants to hurt a certain group. And all they can do is ask themselves one question: Why is the world like this?The main character of Beneath A Scarlet Sky uncovers the hard truth that people are screwed up, showing no mercy for anyone else except for "their" people. Pino was a growing boy that lived in Milan. With only a few years left in the war, he was asked to become a spy and work alongside infamous General Hans Leyers of the Nazi Government. He soon became a witness to the gruesome acts committed by the Nazis, forced to absorb their horrid ideals and the actions done by the regime. By the end of his story, he is able to accept the idea that people are barbaric and harsh, that millions of people with that same mindset roam our planet every day. One particular evening Pino was escorting the General to a slave center and noticed Leyers tease around with traumatized Jews. “... beckoning for mercy while voices inside shouted for aid” (Sullivan 346). He had just seen Jews stacked up in boxcars being transported like rats, noticing the abhorrent conditions of their lives. Slowly Pino questions how people can just snap their fingers and dehumanize everyone, he begins to wonder why such people, filled with so much hate, have to enact such terrible acts. Through his adventures, he perceives that these kinds of people take power over others; he accepts that Charles Darwin's theory of “Survival of the Fittest” isn’t a concept, but rather a statement to be made. Pino is tormented by this, and it hurts furthermore when his lover is killed by rebelling Italians mistaking her for a Nazi. “Anna-Marta took a bullet to her heart” (Sullivan 426). After watching savages shoot and end his love's life, Pino finally breaks; he reaches the point that brings him to the end. He realizes this is how viciousness spreads: through desperation. No longer does he want to be in a world where others treat people like that, no longer does he want to be in a world where people are murdered for their existence. Just like Esperanza or Jem, he learns that the world sucks, that people will hate each other for the most surface-level things; not for the content of their character, but the color of their skin, or their biological sex, or their religious/political beliefs.In To Kill A Mockingbird (TKAM) by Harper Lee, The House On Mango Street (HOMS) by Sandra Cisneros, and Beneath A Scarlet Sky by Mark T. Sullivan, three characters all come of age in their respective stories. No matter who you look at, they all go through extreme change and begin to understand the world around them. From the start, they all have horrible events happen to them, but they eventually assist them in growing up and learning about who they want to be. "Coming of age" is an important experience that fits perfectly into the sequences of anyone's life. Just like these characters, you yourself have likely come of age at some point your like. And like them, you have changed and grown. We have to witness the truth of innocence, the truth that it is a trap. Everyone needs to evolve, to expand their mind, just like Jem, Esperanza, and Pino. If we stay the same our entire lives, nothing will improve; if we refuse to be the person we want to see, then it will always be the same. Together, let's make a world these characters would be proud of, let's make the world that we want to see. Because if we don't, who will?
Sources
Lee, Harper, and Timothy Stafford Healy. To Kill a Mockingbird. Grand Central Publishing, 1988.Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. Vintage Contemporaries, 2009.
Sullivan, Mark. Beneath a Scarlet Sky: A Novel. Amazon Publishing, 2018.
