To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the term ‘mockingbird’ to describe suitable, gracious people. Atticus, Jem and Scout’s father, says that it is alright to shoot and kill a crow, but even aiming at a mockingbird would be a sin. Crows represent greed, jealousy and evil, while mockingbirds represent faultless and pure beings. They first appear when Jem and Scout are learning how to use their shiny new air rifles. Atticus will not teach them how to shoot, but he does give them one rule to follow.

"I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." –Atticus
"Your father's right," she said. "Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, 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." -Miss Maudie

Tom Robinson is a main mockingbird in this story. Robinson is a habitual African-American man who lives with his family. Although he causes no sort of inconvenience to anyone, he is accused of sexually harassing a young Caucasian woman by the name of Mayella Ewell. There was no induced incitement for the attack—it was just assumed that any African-American man would rape any white woman, given the chance. After being imprecisely found guilty, Robinson is placed in prison. He snaps, attempts to break out in broad daylight, and is shot by a guard. Thus, a mockingbird has been killed.

Arthur “Boo” Radley is another mockingbird in the story. Radley is actually a very shy character who is often misjudged by society, including Jem and Scout. Boo Radley is a mocking bird in the sense that he in the end was different in what people said about him. The town was judgmental to anyone who was different and they placed them outside of the caring and 'love' they provided to the people who followed the age old rules. He was innocent from everything people said about him and still like a mockingbird he was talked about or shot (the mockingbird, not Boo).

The mockingbird symbolizes these two characters because it does not have its own song. The blue jay is loud and arrogant; where else the mockingbird only sings other birds' songs. Therefore, the mockingbird is seen through the other birds. The people of Maycomb only knew Boo Radley and Tom Robinson by what others said about them. Both of these characters do not really have their own "song" in a sense, and therefore, are characterized by other people's viewpoints.