The main ‘mockingbird’ in this novel is Tom Robinson. Tom is black, which makes him lower in society, and this is his weakness. When he appears in court, there is no real evidence that he raped Mayella Ewell, however, he is still charged with the rape because people in that society had a belief that black people weren’t really human, therefore a white person was superior to a black person in court.
In the novel, a dog with rabies is killed. The dog didn’t kill anyone, however, the first things the characters in the story do are run away and call Atticus to shoot and kill the innocent creature. The dog’s name, Tim Johnson, is similar to that of Tom Robinson. This links the two together; Tom is prosecuted and finally killed although he is innocent, and Tim is killed even though he is only rabid and hasn’t done anything wrong.
In the end of the novel, Harper Lee makes the comparison between the mockingbird and Tom Robinson much clearer. She writes,
“…it was a sin to kill cripples, be they standing, sitting, or escaping. He likened Tom’s death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children…”
Another character that can be compared to a mockingbird is Arthur Radley. The people of Maycomb treat him as an outsider because he once got into a bad group of people and had never came out of the house since. He has become a myth to them; the townspeople create stories of how he creeps around at night and peers into windows when people are asleep. Poor Arthur, who is innocent, is obviously too timid to go outside when there is a crowd but only goes out when he is sure no-one sees him, but he proves them all wrong when he saves the lives of Jem and Scout. However, he wouldn’t want everyone to know about the deed he had done, as he was too shy, so Mr. Tate decides to keep it quiet. He says,
“…taking the one man who’s done you and this town a great service an’ draggin’ him with his shy ways into the limelight – to me, that’s a sin. It’s a sin…”
This is an almost direct comparison between the mockingbird and Arthur Radley. After this, Scout shows an understanding for what Heck Tate meant by his words and says,
“Well, it’d be sorta like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?”
The final ‘mockingbird’ in this novel is Atticus. Mockingbirds are renown for their singing, they “don’t do one thing but make music for us”. Because they sing, it makes mockingbird easier to shoot at. In a way, a mockingbird singing is like someone expressing his or her views. Throughout the novel, Atticus expresses his opinion on everything and even goes against society to defend an innocent man who had become an outcast because of lies. Because of this, Atticus is laughed at and mocked by all of his friends and even family; however, others who believe the same thing but don’t stand up for what they believe to be right are not persecuted.
In conclusion, I believe that there are many qualities a person can possess to make themselves a mockingbird, and in this novel the moral is that “it is a sin to kill a mockingbird”. There are many ‘mockingbirds’ in our everyday lives, they don’t do wrong or harm anyone, however, they are still harassed. Harper Lee is telling the reader that it is wrong to bother and hassle some who is a ‘mockingbird’, and I believe she is very right!