In Chapter 10 of To Kill A
Mockingbird, Harper Lee first introduces the quote that she chose for her
novel's title. Here, Scout recalls Atticus's advice to Jem, after Uncle Jack gave the
children air-rifles, that he could shoot at tin cans and bluejays in the backyard, but
that Jem should remember "it's a sin to kill a
mockingbird."
Puzzled by this, Scout asks Miss Maudie for
her explanation of Atticus's advice. She tells Scout
that:
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.
Upon reading the
rest of the novel, readers come to realize that a mockingbird is a symbol for a person
who is innocent but unjustly persecuted.
One example of
such a character is Tom Robinson; he is a good, caring, innocent family man who is
wrongfully convicted of rape. Further, Boo Radley, whom the children unfairly labeled a
"malevolent phantom" (and whom the citizens of Maycomb unfairly persecuted because of
his failure to participate in their society), is another example of a character who can
be compared to a mockingbird. In fact, at the end of the novel, Atticus tries to
explain why he and Mr. Tate come to the agreement to lie and say Bob Ewell fell on his
own knife. (In doing so, they are protecting Boo Radley from unwanted attention in
Maycomb.) When Atticus asks Scout if she understands, she says, "yes sir, I
understand. Mr. Tate was right." When Atticus questions her response, she
says
Well,
it'd be sort of like shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn't
it?"
Obviously, Scout has
learned that it is neither fair nor right to bother people who do no harm to
others. Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are the clearest and most obvious characters who
embody this idea and can be labeled as figurative mockingbirds.
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