Boo Radley is the prefect example of what Miss Maudie said about what a mockingbird is. The children tormented Boo and created horrific stories about him without ever knowing any facts or seeing him. But Boo was the one who secretly gave gifts to them at the tree, put a blanket around Scout when she was cold, sewed up Jem’s pants when he was trying to see Boo and saved their lives. The structure of the story is reflective as Scout is looking back at her childhood and the depression era. She feels that she wrongfully treated him.
She realises she never gave anything back to Boo, except love at the end when she escorts him back home and stands on his front porch, she sees the same street she sees everyday but from an entirely different perspective. She learns what a Mockingbird is, and that Boo represents one as she says that hurting Boo Radley would be like “shootin' a mockingbird.”
Tom Robinson is also a metaphoric mockingbird and Atticus shows this when he defends Tom at a case. During the trial, all of the evidence is strongly in Tom’s favour and Atticus poured all of his heart out and did a great job, but he still loses the trial. The poorest white man wins with no proof except his word against a black mans. This shows that even though that Tom was proven innocent, he’s black and will always be guilty. Tom, the mockingbird, hasn’t done anything wrong besides being nice to a white girl. After his death, Mr. Underwood compares his death to “the senseless slaughter of songbirds.” This is relating to the title of the book as mockingbirds just sing their hearts out for us.
Mayella Ewell is the daughter of Bob Ewell. She has nothing and her family is one of the poorest white families in all of Maycomb so Bob accuses Tom of rape to protect his last bit of honour and to become a hero by protecting a white against a dangerous black man. Mayella was forced to lie and accuse Tom by her father. She asks Tom for help many times and for 1 year she has been saving nickels to send her family away for one day for ice-cream and she came onto Tom. This shows that she is a mockingbird and how lonely she is and after the trial, she becomes the most hated person in the town, causes 2 deaths and becomes even lonelier.
Another Mockingbird is Mr. Dolphus Raymond who is a wealthy white man with a black wife and mixed children. He pretends to be a drunk so people can accuse him of being a drunk and excuse his choice to marry a black woman. He prefers living with the blacks but if the town finds out, then he will be hated so this shows what a man has to do to be with blacks.
Harper Lee wrote this book to make the world a better place with no racism and she has done so. Back 50 years people couldn’t stand blacks but now a black man is running for presidency. This shows how far the world has come and this book is still loved to this day even though it was written at the 1960’s. The jury would normally take a minute to say that Tom’s guilty but it took them much longer so this shows they actually thought and looked at the evidence and Atticus says that it is a “baby step” and how the world is today, proves that it was.
