Harper Lee uses the “mockingbirds” to explore and convey the theme of prejudice in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. The novels is set in southern Alabama during the early 1930s and the town is immersed in poverty due to the Great Depression and riddled with widespread prejudice. People are judged based on the color of their skin or their economic status. A mockingbird is an innocent as explained by Miss Maudie when she reveals that "mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird (90).” The most obvious mockingbird is Tom Robinson, but Lee also uses the Black Community, as represented by Calpurnia, and Arthur Radley, “Boo” as …show more content…
He is a kind, hardworking gentleman of color, who feels sorry for and tries to help Mayella, a disenfranchised, abused, poverty stricken young white woman (197). Tom assist her with physical labor around her house, but also treats Mayella with a respect she never experiences. Like a mockingbird, he only is trying to help make the world a better place. Being an honorable man, he rejects Mayella’s advances which leads her to wrongly accuse him to protect her own reputation at the risk of his life. During the trial, it is clear to everyone on the jury that Mayella is wrongly accusing Tom of assault and rape; but they choose to find a guilty verdict because they fear the judgement of the other white townspeople. The judgement is determined not on the facts or Tom Robinson’s character, but solely because he is a black man accused of assaulting a white woman. Tom is the ultimate mockingbird because he is shot 17 times trying to escape prison for wrongful conviction. Of all the mockingbirds in the story, Tom Robinson best reveals the consuming extent of the prejudice of the town and the length that they are willing to go to preserve