Robinson And Mockingbirds example essay topic

Harper Lee has incorporated the representation of her most meaningful statement in the title of her novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. The many points of discussion which surface in Lee's book would certainly have partially submerged the parallel she created between Tom Robinson and the mockingbird. In any classic novel such as To Kill A Mockingbird, the myriad differences in thinking between readers allow for many different interpretations. The author of such a work, however, must constantly make decisions concerning the best ways to fulfill his or her purpose in writing; Harper Lee decided that the symbol of the mockingbird was not displayed prominently enough, and so made it the crux of her novel rather than one of its neglect able elements. With its seemingly unsuited title, Lee's book keeps readers waiting for the moment when a mockingbird pops up -- and shows what the author truly wanted her audiences to find. When Jem and Scout Finch receive their first, longed-for air rifles, their instinctive desire to shoot birds is taken for granted.

Their father refuses to teach them to shoot, but warns them that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird -- the only time his children heard him call something a sin, reflecting how strongly he, and Lee, feel about this. After this order that they avoid their natural inclination towards shooting the colorless, brown mockingbird, Atticus tells his children that they may shoot as many blue jays as they like. These orders were certainly in opposition to the fickle logic of a child's mind. Blue jays are colorful birds, with black crests atop their heads and vibrant patterns on their wings. By contrast, mockingbirds sport drab, brown and black feathers, and are much more likely to attract the aggression of marksmen looking for deserving targets.

However, the simplistic, unlearned minds of children do not easily recognize any criteria beyond the superficial, such as the visual appeal of a bird. Similarly, the jurymen in the novel's central episode convicted Tom Robinson based on some warped principles, with little but the delusive, shallow logic of skin color to guide them. Lee crafted the novel as a story of injustice: injustice to a decent black man and his family, injustice to a lawyer and his family. By making the mockingbird image dominant in her work, Lee avoided the precedence of a Thanksgiving ball, or a Christmas at Aunt Alexandra's, over her racial commentary. To Kill A Mockingbird's readers must side with Tom Robinson, as the novel leaves no doubt of the injustice served him.

There is much correlation between the would-be targets for Jem and Scout's bird shot, and Bob Ewell's scapegoat. Robinson, and mockingbirds, are chosen as targets by people too shallow and ignorant to recognize their true worth, and instead judge them less because of their feather or skin color. Miss M audie told Scout, 'Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncrib's.

' The E wells certainly spent much time in people's 'corncrib's'; they collected welfare, hunted out of season, and generally benefited from much generosity -- something that would have almost certainly been lacking had they been black. Tom Robinson, on the other hand, was a hard worker, a charitable person, and provided for himself. However, just as children with new air rifles would be likely to overlook pesky, but vibrant, blue jays, and instead shoot innocuous, but relatively homely, mockingbirds, the juries of the 1930's would unjustly convict a black man, with the word of an untrustworthy white man as its only proof. The book's trial, and its results, can stir thoughts of much more than just criminal court, and these are exactly the thoughts Lee wanted us to have. She made sure of this when she chose her title.