Mockingbird Symbolism

To Kill A Mockingbird is a bildungsroman novel by Harper Lee. In this novel there are many important and striking symbols. The repeated image of the mockingbird creates a strong and highly effective motif. Harper Lee first introduces the mockingbird to the reader in Chapter 10, when Atticus refuses to teach Scout and Jem how to shoot saying, ‘Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird’. Harper Lee emphasises Scout’s curiosity at her non-judgemental father expressing it is a ‘sin’ to do something, as she consults Miss Maudie. Miss Maudie tells Scout that, ‘Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy…That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.’ Harper Lee allows the reader to explore this motif through the use of characters in the novel and the prejudice and morally wrongdoings in the fictional town of Maycomb.
There are two main characters, which Harper Lee uses this metaphor to illustrate. The symbolism of the metaphor is good, innocent people who are destroyed by evil. Tom Robinson is a black man working for Link Deas. His race makes him very vulnerable in Maycomb society and he recognises this, ‘Mr Finch, if you was a nigger like me, you’d be scared, too’. Tom’s fear of the people of Maycomb contrasts against Maycomb’s opinions of black people, taking ‘the evil assumption that all Negroes lie [and] that all Negroes are basically immoral beings’. Tom also mirrors the compassion of the mockingbird, as he feels sympathetic towards the lonely Mayella, ‘I felt right sorry for her’. His trial symbolises a mockery of justice and Harper Lee reminds us of this when Scout observes, ‘the atmosphere in the courtroom was exactly the same as a cold February morning, w...

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...im physically as well as metaphorically, ‘it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird’. Mr Tate’s understanding of this also emphasises how he is also a mockingbird protector and symbolises a changing Maycomb, ‘taking the one man who’s done you and this town a great service an’ draggin’ him with his shy ways into the lime-light – to me that’s a sin’, this could symbolise that Atticus has changed someone’s views for the better and consequently Harper Lee follows the rules a conventional novel. Harper Lee illustrates Boo to be metaphorically shot when he is forced to kill to save the children from the drunken Mr Ewell, which resulted in the lost of his innocence. Although this results in both mockingbirds being shot, Atticus describes it as ‘a step—it’s just a baby-step, but it’s a step’. These two characters are the main and most important mockingbird associations.