Themes And Motifs In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

In Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird the use of literary themes, and motifs are used to express discrimination in the town of Maycomb. The transformation of the characters in the book through their innocence shows how lifelike they really are. The characters innocence is pulled and torn showing their physical and emotional struggles and how they react and handle their situation. So many innocent people get afflicted in the book not committing a crime but mostly by just being a bystander. Nobody has been affected more by discrimination than Boo and Tom Robinson.
In the first place, the biggest giveaway that Mockingbirds are important is through the book title. A mockingbird is a motif seen throughout the book. The mockingbird symbolizes

the innocence in the characters, so if a mockingbird is killed, and then that person’s innocence is destroyed. The two characters that are considered Mockingbirds throughout the book are Tom Robinson and Boo Radley. “He likened Tom’s death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children.”(Lee 244), this quote talks about how that Tom’s death was not necessary and indicates that he was killed for the town’s enjoyment. He compares it with children because they don’t know better, but throughout the book this is proven wrong most of the time showing that the kids are more mature and humane than the kids are. Tom was a friendly man who did nothing wrong just like a mockingbird.
Correspondingly, Boo Radley’s long and difficult path is somewhat the same but different at the same time. Boo and Tom share some of the same traits, both being handicapped but Tom being physically handicapped while Boo was mentally handicapped. Boo however is locked in his house after his family decides that they would rather see him in their own home than in jail due to Boo hanging out with hooligans who were always getting in trouble. Boo never intended to be a bad kid he was just a misguided one. Boo has not done anything to harm the people of Maycomb but yet people still discriminate against him. He symbolizes the good and kindness that exists on the inside of people. “It was slowly coming to me that there were now four people under the tree.” (266), in this instance Boo shows his kindness and friendliness by saving Jem and Scout’s lives from the sinister Bob Ewell. He is considered a Mockingbird because of how he was locked up in his house and by doing that his freedom and innocence were seized from him.
The innocence of the Finch family is another focal point throughout the book because their loss of innocence is almost completely different from the mockingbirds of Tom and Boo.

An interesting thought that I wanted to talk about in my essay is the Finches last name, which also happens to be a bird that is harmless as well. The Finch was a Bird that was studied by Charles Darwin on the Galapagos Islands about their evolution and adaptation to their surroundings. The Finch kids lose their innocence; unlike other books Scout and Jem portray the loss of innocence in a positive outlook. For instance; in Lord of the Flies the boys who get stranded on an island lose their innocence with having to survive by themselves with no help but their own, this turns the boys into savages having a negative appearance on the loss of innocence. The loss of innocence for the Finches provides them with experience and knowledge as well as a positive moral outlook on life and having a tolerance for other races. Atticus on the other hand is completely different to the other characters loss of innocence. He is a gentle man who doesn’t like to hurt, as shown by Atticus showing remorse for having to shoot the rabid dog Tim Johnson for the good of the town and for the sake of his loved ones. Atticus defends and tries to preserve the innocence of Maycomb from the hatred of the white man. While trying to defend the innocence of Tom and the town he tries to draw the innocence out of Jem and Scout trying to help them mature from a much younger age and show them what the world really is

about.
Innocence is a very gentle and sensitive feeling that has to be nurtured for the sake of everyone not just children but adults as well. The loss of innocence plays a very important role in not just the people of Maycomb’s lives but everyone in the world’s lives. It is the boundary separating childhood from adulthood; a boy from a man, a girl from a woman it helps shape the person we turn out to be.