To Kill a Mockingbird Essay

        If one reads To Kill a Mockingbird without pondering the author’s title choice, one remains unaware of the book’s true meaning.  Harper Lee characterizes mockingbirds through Atticus warning Jem that it is a sin to kill a mocking bird and Miss Maudie saying that mockingbirds are harmless creatures that only make sweet music for people to enjoy.  In their own way, both Boo Radley and Tom Robinson are harmless mockingbirds who do no wrong.  As a good neighbor, Boo warms Scout with a blanket and leaves Jem and Scout gifts.  Most important, he saves the lives of Jem and Scout by killing Bob Ewell.  These achievements are Boo’s “sweet music.”  Boo is a harmless mockingbird because when he is not doing good deeds, he reclusively stays in his house, never harming people.  Harper Lee does not term Boo as a mockingbird, but she endorses this theory through Scout saying that prosecuting Boo would be similar to killing a mockingbird.  Furthermore, if Heck Tate had reprimanded Boo, it would have been the equivalent of killing a mockingbird. Tom Robinson is another mockingbird.  He lives a peaceful life, minding his own business, except when he charitably helps those he pities.  Unfortunately, his benevolence in aiding Mayella Ewell in her chores leads to his death, the death of a mockingbird.  While Harper Lee never identifies Tom as a mockingbird, she does confirm this comparison by means of Mr. Underwood’s editorial in which “he likened Tom's death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children.”  From this evidence, the readers can be certain that the jury committed the most debauched sin of the book, killing a mockingbird, when they declared Tom guilty of murder.  In order to understand the title, one must listen to Harper Lee’s whispers which illustrate the meaning of a mockingbird and identify Tom and Boo as metaphorical mockingbirds.

        Comprehension of the many metaphors Harper Lee employs in To Kill a Mockingbird entails serious thought because Harper Lee only whispers them.  She elucidates a metaphor through Atticus saying, "Courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what."  Courage binds together the metaphor between Mrs. Dubose overcoming her morphine addiction and Atticus defending Tom Robinson because undertaking either task requires courage.  Additionally, they both are unpopular and motivated by self-respect.  Atticus explains his inspiring self-respect when he says that he would have been able to face neither himself nor his children if he did not take the Robinson case.  Defending Tom was unpopular in Maycomb as almost everyone was angry and disrespectful towards Atticus and his children.  Atticus also explains that Mrs. Dubose admirably wanted to die “beholden to nothing and nobody,” including her unpopular morphine addiction.  Harper Lee never overtly explains this metaphor, but she whispers it to those who will listen to certain similarities between Mrs. Dubose defeating her morphine addiction and Atticus defending Tom Robinson.

        “It is not what an author says, but what she whispers which is most important.”  This holds true for To Kill a Mockingbird.  It contains themes such as dignity which are not obvious in the text, but which Harper Lee implies.  She also does not clearly state the connection between Mrs. Dubose overcoming her morphine addiction and Atticus defending Tom Robinson, but she whispers the metaphor through the characters’ similar qualities and motivations.  Another implicit aspect of the book is its title’s subtle relevance to the text.  To kill either Tom Robinson or Boo Radley is to kill a mockingbird because they are metaphorical mockingbirds.  None of these ideas is explained in the text; Harper Lee softly whispers them.