What is a Mockingbird?

Scout may not be the most obvious “mockingbird”, but she is a great model of one never the less. Most of her innocence originates from being young and not knowing what she has done or said is offensive to some people. Kids at school call her names because her father is defending a black man. Especially when “[Cecil Jacobs] had announced in the schoolyard … Scout Finch’s daddy defended niggers” (74). Scout doesn’t know what a “nigger” is, but the way Cecil said it, she knew instantly that it had to be something terrible. She punched him and fought him. It is not her fault which choices her father makes, and why should anybody be persecuted in the first place when the choice is a good one. Scout usually chooses to fight her label, and chooses to do it with violence.  Their first grade teacher hounds her for trying to tell her that Walter won’t take her money because he is a Cunningham, and he won’t take what he can’t pay back; “Miss Caroline picked up her ruler, gave me half a dozen quick pats then tolled me to stand in the corner” (22). Miss Caroline thought she was trying to be offensive, because she is new to town and doesn’t know everybody and how they live. Scout is a great model of a “mockingbird” because she is so young and does not know how to behave properly. This is where her innocence comes from.

Dolphus Raymond is another very good example of a “mockingbird” in the book. We don’t get to see much of him, but what we do see is very important and we can observe that he is trapped in his lie. People spread rumors about him because he lives with blacks, and prefers them to whites. They call him names and assume he is a bad person without even having said one word to him, or received one from him; “as Mr. Dolphus Raymond was an evil man…” (200). They call him evil just for living with blacks instead of whites. He was “supposed to marry one of … the Spencer ladies” (161), but on the night of their wedding day she found out that he loved a black woman more, so she shot herself. Because of this people tend to exaggerate about how he lives. They say that “he’s got a Co-Cola bottle full of whisky” (160) in a brown paper bag that he drinks from all the time. This bottle is in fact filled with Coca-Cola the whole time. Sometimes people just see in others what they want to see before judging them fairly. Dolphus gives people a reason he lives the way he lives; he doesn’t want people to keep bugging him about it to his face. He doesn’t just consent that he is a “mockingbird” in Maycomb’s society, but he gives people a reason to make him one.

“Mockingbirds” in the world have a very tough life. And that’s what Atticus is trying to teach his children: not to punish an innocent person, not to jump to crazy conclusions that you heard from a friend of a friend, and not to judge somebody before you really know them to say they’re guilty. Atticus is trying to teach his kids a very important life lesson. If everybody knew it, the world would be a better place.