To Kill a Mockingbird

Scouting for Lessons The lessons we learn accumulate over time to create who we are. The earlier we learn these lessons, the more effective they are. Having the help of someone who already knows these lessons is helpful. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, a young, curious girl named Scout learns lessons and experiences that grow her into a better person.

The first lesson Scout learns is empathy. Empathy is the act of putting yourself in other people’s shoes and seeing things from their perspective. Scout struggles to learn this lesson, but she masters it once she does. “My stomach turned to water and nearly threw up when Jem held out the blanket and crept toward me,” (96). Scout is very immature at this time. She acts as if the blanket is poisonous and has cooties. She doesn’t see things from Boo’s point of view. Boo is just an innocent man that enjoys watching the neighborhood kids play. He puts a blanket around Scout because it’s a cold night and he just felt it was the right thing to do, but Scout doesn’t take it that way because she hasn’t learned empathy. “Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough,” (374). It isn’t until the end of the book that Scout fully understands empathy. As she stand on the Radley porch and looks out on the neighborhood, she sees what Boo has seen. She sees things from his perspective and feels sympathy for him.

Scout learns another lesson during the Thomas Robinson trial. Atticus teaches her this lesson directly, and he is the perfect example of it. Scout learns perseverance, to keep fighting even when you know you can’t win. “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win,” (101). Atticus takes the Thomas Robinson case because he knows that no one else will. He knows that no matter how blatant he makes Thomas Robinson’s innocence, he still can’t win the trial because of the all-white jury. Atticus is the definition of perseverance.

Scout learns to never kill a mockingbird. This has a literal and figurative meaning. “Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird,” Atticus tells Jem and Scout (119). At this time, what Atticus said has a strictly literal meaning, don’t kill mockingbirds because they are harmless and all they do is sing for us. Scout shows respect towards Atticus by listening to his word and not shooting mockingbirds. Later in the story, Scout spots a rolly-polly. Like most humans, Scout has an instinct to smash it. “Don’t do that Scout. Set him out on the back steps,” (319). Scout is surprised by what Jem tells her. The rolly-polly is the same as the mockingbird, all though they don’t sing. They are both harmless, but Scout would have killed that rolly-polly and never thought about again a day in her life. Atticus gets Scouts feet wet with the idea of not harming harmless things, but Jem directly teaches her the literal meaning of not killing mockingbirds.

The figurative or symbolic lesson to not kill a mockingbird is displayed throughout the story. Thomas Robinson is a mockingbird. In fact, all black people during the Jim Crow laws were mockingbirds. Discrimination is the act of putting a person or group of people below you. They were harmless, innocent people being discriminated and wrongly justified because of the color of their skin. “Seventeen bullet holes in him. They didn’t have to shoot him that much,” (315). Scout hears from Atticus that Thomas Robinson was shot seventeen times trying to escape prison, escape the electric chair, and escape the injustice. It only takes one bullet to kill a man, maybe two. But as a blatant sign of racism, white people shot a mockingbird not once, but seventeen times. Boo Radley is also a mockingbird. He’s an innocent man that was simply born into the wrong family and will never live a healthy life because of his father. “Well it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?” (370). Scout understands that it would be wrong to give Boo Radley attention, even though it would be positive. She understands that Boo has never had any kind of attention in his life and such a large amount of attention would be like killing a mockingbird. It’s at this time when Scout understands both meanings to not kill a mockingbird.

The lesson to not kill a mockingbird leads right into the last lesson, that life isn’t fair. This lesson is displayed throughout the whole story, and everyone can relate to it. During the times of Jim Crow laws and racism, this lesson is especially displayed. The injustice of an innocent man of Tom Robinson shows that life isn’t fair. “I shut my eyes. Judge Taylor was polling the jury: Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty.” Scout knows that Thomas Robinson is one-hundred percent innocent of what he is being convicted for. She knows that this is the incorrect jury verdict. It’s the incorrect jury verdict because life isn’t fair.

Scout learns the lessons and experiences at a young age that grow her into a better person. Scout learns empathy, to see things from other people’s perspective. She learns perseverance, to keep fighting even when you know you can’t win. She learns to never kill mockingbirds, both literally and figuratively. Lastly, she learns that life is unfair. While Scout is learning these lessons, Harper Lee is teaching us these lessons. In a brilliant way, Harper Lee gets us to learn important life lessons as we read the words. Racism continues to haunt our daily lives whether it’s at school or work. We still have the residue of racism, the leftover popcorn kernels after a movie that unknowingly follow us everywhere we go.