The Naivety They Once Knew

(My concluding Journal Post; written after finishing the narrative)


In conclusion, I must say, this is one of the best books I've ever read; it was not only engrossing, but it changed my perspective after reading it; there is only one other book that I think I can say that about, and that book is 'The Outsiders', by S.E. Hinton.

I must admit, when I first saw the themes of this book that could be used in our Journal posts written on the board, I was surprised to see 'Loss of Innocence'; I thought to myself that there were many better examples of said theme in other pieces of literature. However, I now know what was meant; the death of Jem's innocence, was an emotional blow. As a reader I developed an attachment to the main characters, especially the young, innocent, ones. When Jem's innocence died-to me-so did he; he became a stranger, impervious to the naivety he and Scount once knew. I from that point on, knew the world would never be the same for him, it would be the unfair, cold place we all see it as.

One thing in particular that struck me was how he aknowledged that he had change; that "when [he] was [Scout's] age" (P.259), he used to ask himself the same naive questions Scout now asks herself.

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On an unrelated note, I thought I must end with something I noticed throughoutt my reading of this novel; something that served as a minor distraction. This issue would have been hard to elude, but nevertheless: the advanced language and writing style used in this novel, I found a bit unbelievable, as it was a six year old girl whose thoughts they were, but, as I said before, that would have been hard to avoid. There may have been a few specific examples of this, but I believe it would be to no avail to single them out, as the entire novel was written in that style. However, something that trivial could not tarnish the power and literary genius of this novel.



Avineet