How Is The Metaphor Used In To Kill A Mockingbird

Two characters from “The Bat-Poet”, by Randall Jarrell, a 1900’s American poet and children’s author, deeply affected the poetic bat, the protagonist of the story. The bat first heard the mockingbird during the daytime, when the bat was supposed to be sleeping, singing wonderful poems. After a bit, this got the bat to begin writing his own poems, not just listening to them. He created a poem about the owl who had almost caught him one or two nights ago. The bat brought the poem to two audiences, his original inspiration, the mockingbird, and the chipmunk that he had seen scurrying around previously. Both the mockingbird and the chipmunk both listened to his work, but they left him with two very different opinions.

Though the mockingbird made beautiful music and was, in fact, the bat’s original creative inspiration, the showed his true colors when the bat attempted to recite him his first poem. At first, the mockingbird was so openly narcissistic that he finished the bat’s question and basically asked himself to sing his own song again, when really the bat had been wanting to show the mockingbird a poem of his own. When the mockingbird

discovered the bat’s true question, he was so cocky as to say that bats can’t sing as well as mockingbirds and hinted at bats not being able to compose as well either. Being the mockingbird that he was, he analyzed only the technical aspects of the bat’s poetry, and completely ignored what it meant emotionally. He looked down at any poetry except his own, which he believed to have no rival. Despite all his attempts to make himself seem superlative to everyone else, the mockingbird only succeeded in showing everybody what a very cold being he truly was.

After meeting the mockingbird, the bat met the chipmunk, and offered to create a poem about him. Although the chipmunk at first didn’t know exactly what poetry was, he proved to be a much better audience than the mockingbird. The chipmunk was very responsive and appreciative of the poems that the bat showed him. He never got too technical with them and was always eager to hear more. Before meeting the bat, the chipmunk had never heard anything like poetry, so he never looked down upon the bat’s work. He always loved the poems for what they were and was always ready to help the bat when it came time for new inspiration. The shy chipmunk even went as far as to advertise and compliment the bat’s poetry to the other local animals.

Despite both being audiences and inspiration for the bat poet, the mockingbird and the chipmunk were profoundly different.

The mockingbird, the original inspiration to the bat poet, made the music that inspired the bat to create his own. The chipmunk, on the other hand, inspired the bat, not by making music, but by proving to be a much more receptive and enjoyable audience than the mockingbird. This kept the bat from being discouraged when the mockingbird got him down. While the mockingbird dismissed the bat’s poems and payed attention only to the mechanical parts of the poems, the chipmunk payed little mind to how it flowed and rhymed, but more to how it affected one’s emotions. He didn’t scrutinize the bat’s work like the mockingbird, he loved it for what it was and looked up to the bat’s creativity and his way with

words.

Although the two characters affected the bat similarly, they did it in much different ways. The mockingbird was the first to actually show the bat what music was, and inspired him to create his own. The chipmunk inspired him to keep going, even when the mockingbird dismissed his work. Those two animals listened to the bat, but left him with very different opinions . In the end, the bat saw the mockingbird for what he truly was, a narcissistic and snooty musician, and he saw the chipmunk as a good listener, and overall, a true friend.