Comment on the Symbolism of the Mockingbird in this Novel

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Comment on the Symbolism of the Mockingbird in this Novel

     Throughout the novel, the idea of a mockingbird is repeated. One of the most important quotes in the book is when Atticus is talking to Jem about shooting and he says,

        “I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

     This idea of a mockingbird shows that killing a mockingbird is a sinful thing.

      Another quote giving the reader an impression about Mockingbirds is when Miss. Maudie says, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us,” showing that mockingbirds are innocent. We can look at the idea of a mockingbird as an innocent creature.

     The idea of hunting a mockingbird is irrelevant to the storyline; however, the mockingbird becomes a metaphor for the wrongness of harming innocent and vulnerable people.

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     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 ...

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