One of which is ‘Atticus Finch’ as he is shown as one of the main characters in the novel and he was the 1st character to talk about the symbolised mockingbird. We first realise that Atticus is a mockingbird by looking at his last name as its ‘Finch’. We learn from Miss Maudie’s explanation of Atticus’s statement about killing mockingbirds being a ‘sin’ that Atticus is a mockingbird in the novel because he sung out Tom’s truth to Maycomb’s community and he was not listened to and ignored. All Atticus was trying to do was save Tom Robinson as he knew that was the right thing to do and he also knew it would be on his conscience if he didn’t help him. Even in the courtroom Atticus was accused of ‘mockin’ Mayella. This means he is a mockingbird because all Atticus was doing was helping even though he knew he was going to get differentiated because of it.
Tom Robinson is also a mockingbird like Atticus as he is innocent of all the charges that he was in court for but he was being discriminated because he was black. In the end ironically Tom Robinson, a mockingbird was shot when he attempted to run away from prison. In the end we find out that it is not only the obvious characters that are compared to mockingbirds, Boo Radley was like Tom Robinson in many different ways. They are both compared with each other when scout says that the public staring of Boo would be ‘sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird’, this shows that she has grown mature in is finally realising that Boo would be discriminated for no fault of his own is he is exposed and it would be a ‘sin’ to do so. The two characters innocence are shown when both show kindness to children as Boo gave little gifts to scout and Jem while Tom helped out Mayella as he felt sorry for her but this is seen as a crime worse than rape as he was black. Both of these characters are victims of prejudice as Tom is Black and is thought of as the lowest in society, it was only because of his colour that he was accused of the rape by Bob Ewell and in the end shot because of it and Boo because of he was thought of as evil to society. Boo was imprisoned in his own home to protect him from peoples prejudice, Boo would have been looked down in society because of the rumours that went around about him. Scout and Jem showed the readers how these rumours of Boo fed their imagination and superstition when they were young and they mocked Boo’s actions. The children also showed their fear of Boo even though in the end they knew he was innocent, he dared each other to touch the house of where this frightful person lived. Jem told Dill that Boo would ‘kill us each and every one’ this was all because they hadn’t seen him for themselves and they were running on the societies own judgement, victims of prejudice.
Miss Maudie is another character who was considered a mockingbird because of prejudice even though she was white, was kind to scout and Jem and associated with the right people in the community. She was discriminated because of her love of nature and unconventional religious views. Miss Maudie was a Baptist and was disliked by the ‘foot-washing Baptists’ such as Mr Radley because they believed that ‘pleasure is a sin’. The foot-washers told her that her ‘flowers were going to hell’ as they also thought that she spent too much time in ‘God’s outdoors’ and had ‘not enough time for the bible’. Scout didn’t understand this discrimination as she then described miss Maudie as ‘our friend’ and the ‘best lady i know’, scout was to young to understand this sort of prejudice as to her eyes there was nothing wrong with Miss Maudie.
Mockingbirds are not the only sort of birds that are symbolised in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ blue-jays are also used and are firstly mentioned in the same quote as the first mockingbird reference, ‘Shoot all the blue-jays you want… sin to kill a mockingbird’. Blue jays are birds that are infamous as a destroyer of eggs and nestlings and they are known for taking advantage of almost any food resource available to them. They are very noisy and their sounds described in the book as a ‘Inscrible qua-ack’ this is almost the opposite to the mockingbird as the mockingbird sings and yet is not heard when the blue-jay is very noisy and is almost always heard if it sings. These characteristics can also like the mockingbird be compared to characters in the novel such as Bob Ewell because of the way he wrongly voiced his views on Atticus and Tom Robinson around the community and he was listened to. He also fed of Mayella’s and used her mistake she made with Tom Robinson just to get his own way against his opposition.
The Mockingbird is not only symbolized to just describe the characters it is also used to explain the atmosphere in some of the situations in the novel. One of the situations is when Atticus shot the diseased dog in the street. The dog would have symbolized the mockingbirds of the novel such as Tom Robinson as it was shot like him and related to the original quote of shooting mockingbirds. Before the dog got shot it was described to have ‘raised his head’ this would have been the last ounce of dignity when he would have faced his opposition. Before the shot happened the atmosphere was described as ‘deadly and ‘the mockingbirds were silent’ the atmosphere reacted was of such that was also described later when scout and Jem got pounced on by Bob Ewell. The atmosphere at that point was portrayed like just before the dog got shot as the ‘stillness before a thunderstorm’ and also on the way to the pageant ‘even the mockingbird is silent’.
Harper lee showed the readers of her book that she didn’t agree with the way people can be stereotyped in the world and how prejudice can stop people living the life they should. This was the reason why she chose to use the metaphorical symbolism the way she has as she has effectively shared all her views about that time and the way people live through a simple minded ‘mockingbird’
