Innocence and the Mockingbird The mockingbird is a very important symbol in the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. In the novel, Jem and Scout are raised by a single father, Atticus, who is also a lawyer. Atticus is given the job of defending a black man, Tom Robinson, in court. Tom is clearly innocent, but because of racial prejudice during the Great Depression, he is proven guilty. Also, Boo Radley, the neighbor of Jem and Scout, kills Bob Ewell, the man who tried to attack Jem and Scout. Even though he killed someone, he is never taken to court. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the mockingbird to symbolize innocence and all that is good in the small southern town of Maycomb. Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama on April 26, 1926. She wrote To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960. Harper Lee graduated from the University of Alabama in 1948 and went to Oxford University to study law for a year. After a year in law school, Lee went to New York to get a job as an airline reservation clerk. During her free time during work, she wrote fictitious accounts of events in her childhood. By 2005, To Kill a Mockingbird had sold more than 30 million copies and had been translated into 40 languages. Also, Harper Lee wrote a second novel, Go Set a Watchman, and published it in …show more content…
Atticus says, "I 'd rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you 'll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it 's a sin to kill a mockingbird" (Lee 98). This shows that mockingbirds are sacred birds that do not do anything to harm or annoy humans. Elizabeth Schmermund says, "The mockingbird symbolizes innocence- an innocence that cannot, and must not, be destroyed.” She also says, "the animals in the book represent larger ideas - such as innocence” (65). The mockingbird symbolizes much bigger ideas such as innocence in the
Mockingbirds: Emblems of innocence in To Kill A Mockingbird There are many mockingbirds in the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The image of mockingbirds represent many people in the story and how many people take advantage of them for their own benefits. Scout, a young girl who lives in Maycomb is the story’s protagonist. She lives with her brother and father and occasionally meets Calpurnia their cook. For instance, Tom Robinson and Calpurnia are treated differently because of their skin color, however they are very close to the Finch family.
Harper Lee is a friendly and outgoing person. Harper Lee began writing To Kill A Mockingbird in 1960. This story took place in 1936 when harper lee was younger living out her childhood in Monroeville, Alabama. This book explains to us the roots and consequences of racism that occurred in the book and how good and evil can happen to a town or an individual. In her novel, To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee uses Tom Robinson, Atticus, and Jem to show that good and evil can happen in a person and a town.
Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, wrote the book in 1960’s while the events in the book take place in the early 1930’s. During the 1930’s, the Great Depression just hit the United States, the unemployment rate grew and many families lived in poverty. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee describes the childhood of Scout, also known as Jean Louise Finch, and her older brother Jem which is short for Jeremy Atticus Finch. The Finches were fairly wealthy compared to the rest of the residents of Maycomb County, Alabama, which is due to Scout and Jem’s father, Atticus Finch, being a lawyer. Throughout the beginning of the novel, Harper Lee uses symbols to foreshadow the loss of innocence leading up to Atticus’ big trial with Tom Robinson and Mayella Ewell.
The mockingbird within the text of the novel represents innocence as the birds are very innocent themselves and never aggravate anyone. In the novel Harper Lee first signifies the true importance of the mockingbird in chapter ten as it is displayed in a discussion between Atticus, Jem, and eventually Miss Maudie when Atticus asserts, " '... Remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.' That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it. ' Your father's right
Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, and Pulitzer Prize winner uses her book as a way to write about her own life growing up. Sometimes a sleepy town in Maycomb County has more to the story. Jem and Scout Finch learn this through Atticus’s acts of bravery and by losing their innocence through the Tom Robinson trial. Throughout the book Harper Lee uses many themes including courage, loss of innocence, and walking in someone else’s shoes.
Have you ever wondered which event in your life made you see everything differently? Everybody faces various experiences with the realities of the world that eventually results in the loss of their innocence. The loss of innocence can be the outcome of an incident witnessed, a final conclusion about an issue, or an understanding of a situation. The loss of innocence is the same thing as maturity. Now, of course, you can’t go to sleep one night and wake up mature.
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee many characters are victims of the harsh conditions of Maycomb County. Often those who are seen to be metaphorical mockingbirds are punished the most. A mockingbird is one who only wants and attempts to do good. Characters such as Boo Radley, Jem Finch and Tom Robinson are exemplars of mockingbirds in Maycomb. In the novel it is explained by Atticus that killing a mockingbird is a sin because they do not do anything to harm to us like nesting in corncribs, or eating up the gardens, they only sing for us.
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee the term mockingbird symbolizes innocence in a person. In the novel it focuses on the fact that innocence, represented by the mockingbird, can be wrongfully harmed. There are two characters: Tom Robinson and Arthur “Boo” Radley that are supposed to represent the mockingbird. In the novel, Tom Robinson is the best example of a mockingbird because he is prosecuted for a crime he did not commit. Also, he was judged unfairly based on the color of his skin in his trial.
Lee uses the mockingbird as a symbol of evoking empathy in the novel. She writes, “I’d rather you shoot a tin can in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after the birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit them, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (Lee119). Atticus is explaining to Scout to not kill the mockingbird because it’s a sin. Lee evokes empathy by using the mockingbird to symbolize innocence.
The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is about two kids, Jem and Scout, and their childhood in their small town Maycomb, Alabama. In the beginning of the novel, Jem and Scout were two innocent kids playing in the summer sun, until school came along. Jem was about twelve throughout the novel and Scout was eight, and considering that Jem was twelve in the novel, he was changing. During the middle of the novel a rape trial occurred, which included a black man being accused by a white woman of first-degree rape. Atticus, the kid’s father was defending the african american man; Tom Robinson.
The mockingbird in To Kill A Mockingbird is symbolic of innocence. Early in the novel, Atticus, the father tells the children Scout and Jem that it is a "sin to kill a mockingbird". Later Scout asks Miss Maudie what he meant by that because she has never heard her father say anything was a sin. Miss Maudie explains his reasoning by saying that all mockingbirds do is provide beautiful music. They do not harm anyone, they don't bother anyone, and they "sing their hearts out for us."
To Kill a Mockingbird is to destroy innocence. Throughout the book, a number of characters such as Jem, Tom Robinson, Dill, Boo Radley, Scout... etc., can be identified as Mockingbirds. Innocents who have been injured or destroyed through contact with evil. They don't know who is giving the evil to everyone but everyone thinks its Boo Radley from all the rumors they hear. The most important theme of To Kill a Mockingbird is the book’s exploration of the moral nature of human beings—that is, whether people are essentially good or essentially evil.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a book mainly about the coexistence of good and evil. The book stresses and emphasizes on the exploration of moral nature in humans. There are many themes in this novel including courage, innocence, racism, femininity, etc. However the most prevalent theme in the book is innocence. Not just innocence in itself but the danger and harm evil poses to the innocent.
In the story, the innocents are destroyed by evil, the “mockingbird” comes to represent the idea of innocence. Thus, to kill a mockingbird is to destroy innocence. Such as when Atticus says “Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit'em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (103). Another example could be when Boo stabs Bob Ewell to save Jem and Scout, which sheriff Tate decides to say that Mr.Ewell fell on the knife, so Boo won’t have to go to court.
Mockingbirds are an important symbol because they represent goodness and innocence. In this book, Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are two innocent men, similar to mockingbirds, who get taken advantage of due to their innocence. Atticus and Miss Maudie teach Scout and Jem that it’s a sin to harm anything innocent by using the example of mockingbirds. Mockingbirds are innocent because they only positively affect people through their singing.