"Remember, it's a sin to kill a mockingbird

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"Remember, it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

These words, spoken by Atticus are the central theme of the novel, and the source of the novel's title. Miss Maudie further elaborates these words, by saying; "Mockingbirds don't do one thing but sing out their hearts for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." It is a very cruel thing indeed to kill, or even harm something that does not harm us; rather is a source of benefit for us, like these mockingbirds, that don't 'eat up peoples gardens, don't nest in corncribs, but make music for us to enjoy."

In the novel we can identify several people as mockingbirds: good, innocent people who have been punished due to no fault of their own. One of these is no doubt Boo Radley– just as mockingbirds do not harm people, but "only sing their hearts out for us," in the same way Boo Radley does not harm anyone, rather he leaves little presents for Jem and Scout in the knothole, covers Scout with a blanket when she is shivering with cold during the fire, and when the time comes, he even saves the children from Bob Ewell when he tries to kill them on the night of Halloween. But even though he has never tried to harm the children, even though he is causing no harm to anyone, he is not allowed to communicate with them in his own childlike fashion; the knothole in which he would leave the little presents is blocked up by his elder brother, Nathan Radley. He has been trapped in his own house for over fifteen years; he is not allowed to come out, just because he indulged in a little mischief years ago.

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The connection between Boo Radley and a mockingbird is made very clear, when Scout says that exposing Boo Radley, making his rescue of the children public 'would be like shooting a mockingbird', because you would be hurting him by depriving him of his privacy and bringing him into the limelight when he prefers to keep to himself. Even Boo Radley's description when Scout first lays her eyes upon him, is likened to a mockingbird, with feathery hair, fluttery hand movements, and an overall frail and delicate appearance.    

The second obvious 'mockingbird' in the novel is Tom Robinson, a ...

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