Days_of_Innocence

Days of Innocence Do you recall times when you child displays as sense of innocence' A time where your little girl or boy was ignorant of today’s images of hate' John investigates factors that have an impact on the innocence of children. There is a time in every person’s life where they display a sense of innocence more often than not this is apparent in the earlier to mid youth years of one’s life. Children appear untouched to any form of rebellion. However, come the time of adolescence, this has faded in a range of individuals. This is due to young people continuously being subjected to influences such as drugs, there various personal role models, beliefs among their parents and the social media. “The child's naive dream of life is the only one worth having.” Consider a child for instance, some appear unsubjected to any disciplined, caring, loving individuals, right' Research states that ‘television reveals to children all of the backstage activities of adults. It exposes children to behaviour that the adults spent centuries trying to hide from children. The average child watching television sees adults hitting or killing eachother. Revealing the secrets of adulthood has virtually destroyed the notion of childhood as a discrete period of innocence’ (soundvision.com, 2013) The novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” explores the role of innocence. The Power of One explores the idea that whilst children are the icon of innocence they still commit crimes to the influence of media and their various role models. The novel instils in its readers a clear message about the importance of innocence and that innocence should not be impacted or destroyed. This was through the character of Atticus Finch. [pic] These are the smiles of innocence. Young children are the faces of innocence. The subject of innocence is taught explicitly by Atticus to his children to preserve and not impact those who have done nothing wrong, by stating “it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (Lee, 2006, p.99) and “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. The don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a Mockingbird” (Lee, 2006, p.100). Lee’s novel is harrowed as a work of unfounded moral good that clearly reminds the reader that it is a sin for one to wilfully destroy innocence, and the symbol of the mocking bird embodies this innocence. Modern media have also reinforced this message of innocence in mainstream cinematic works such as 1992’s ‘The Power of One’. This is a story of a young English boy named Peekay, growing up he suffered as the only English child in an Afrikaans school. In one scene of the film shows Peekay sitting on the floor getting urinated on by the older kids because he was the only English speaking child. Being subjected to this vindictive behaviour has placed a threat to impact on his sense of innocence being a young child. More often than not in our modern day contemporary society we see young children’s innocence either being taken away or impacted in some way shape or form. It is up to us as the older generations to preserve this innocence instilling in young individuals.