To Kill a Mockingbird Essay

Dulian Progonati 1/5/2013
The Sin of Killing a Mockingbird
“Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”(Lee 90). They’re beautiful, harmless creatures that do nothing, but sing their hearts out. In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, by Harper Lee, the literal reference of the mocking bird is depicted as an innocent creature, a creature that is considered a sin if you kill one. In the story, the mockingbirds are depicted as two characters; Boo Radley and Tom Robinson. The characters show significance towards the story and the title. The literal reference of the mockingbird symbolizes Boo Radley and Tom Robinson . “Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (Lee 90) This begins to explain more on what the mockingbird means, then Miss Maudie fully explained why it was a sin to kill a mockingbird to Scout. “Your father’s right,” “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 mocking.”(Lee 90) The literal reference of a mockingbird is show how good it is. Boo Radley is considered a mockingbird. “The Maycomb school grounds adjoined the back of the Radley lot; from the Radley chickenyard tall pecan trees shook their fruit into the schoolyard, but the nuts lay untouched by the children: Radley pecans would kill you. A baseball hit into the Radley yard was a lost ball and no questions asked.” (Lee 143) In the story the mockingbird, Boo Radley was looked as a dangerous individual, when really, he was misunderstood. In the story, Scout and Jem are put in a life or death situation. They were walking home from a play when they got attacked by Bob Ewell, when they got saved by Boo Radley in the nick of time and Boo ended up killing Bob in order to save the kids. In the story, Scout was questioned on the death of Bob Ewell, while she knew exactly what happened, she kept quiet and she said she didn’t see anything. Even though her father was trying to teach her good by teaching her not to lie, this showed the coming of age of Scout. Scout also says that sending Boo Radley to jail is like killing a mockingbird, which shows that Boo Radley is one of the mockingbirds in this story. Tom Robinson is considered a mockingbird in the story. In the story, he was accused of raping a white woman named Mayella Ewell. Mayella claimed that Tom Robinson, “snuck up behind, started strangling me, and throw me to the ground.” (Lee 216) While this wasn’t true because a person who hit her needed to have been a lefty, and Tom Robinsons left arm was crippled. Beat even with all the evidence put out there, Tom was still guilty, and was sentenced to death. A mockingbird is an innocent creature that doesn’t harm annoying, and that, “it’s a sin to kill a mocking.”(Lee 90) This relates to the title “To Kill a Mockingbird” Tom, being one of the mockingbirds in the story. The title “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, was chosen by the significant impact it has on the book. We meet two characters, Boo Radley and Tom Robinson. Boo Radley being a character who moved himself away from society and excluded himself from others, and because of this he was looked at as a bad person. Tom Robinson, on the other hand, was looked at as bad because he was black, and was accused of rape by a white woman. Both these characters were innocent people, they never did harm for anyone, so if they get hurt or something happens to them, it would be like “killing mockingbirds” which is why Harper Lee chose this title. Killing mockingbirds is the central theme in the story because in the story, were faced in situations with two innocent people, who are depicted as mockingbirds, on the verge of dying. One of them happens to die, but that’s why Harper Lee made “killing mockingbirds” a central theme in this novel.