Symbol Of The Mocking Bird example essay topic

2. "What is the significance of the title of the novel" "I'd rather you shoot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you " ll go after the birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mocking bird". Atticus Finch recites these lines to his two children, Jem and Scout after he gives them air-rifles for Christmas.

Scout is curious, as this is the first time that she has ever heard her father refer to anything as a sin, Scout asks Miss Maude what Atticus meant by this. Miss Maude tells Scout that mocking birds don't rip up people's garden's or annoy them in any way, all they do is play beautiful music for us to listen to. To Kill A Mocking Bird is set in a small town in South America called Maycomb. Most of the town's people of this happy town are not at all what they seem for there is a great hate for all coloured humans.

At first glance many readers would wonder how the title evolved, but once you explore the text you begin to understand what the bases of Harper Lee's message. Harper Lee has portrayed two characters as Mocking Birds. The first of these is Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson is a Negro living in Maycomb who becomes notorious when he is wrongly accused of the rape of a white woman. Atticus knows that the battle will not be an easy case to win, but decides to represent Tom Robinson, as he says that he couldn't hold his head up in town or tell the children what to do.

Tom Robinson was a harmless member of society who never hurt another human being and because he tried to help Maybella, who he thought was in need, was blamed for the rape of the young woman. At the end of the novel there is another symbol of the mocking bird, when Tom dies it shows the pointless killing of a mocking bird. Atticus is determined to prove the innocence of Tom Robinson. He slowly begins to build a very strong case that eventually comes to trial. Atticus proves that Tom could not have raped and beaten Maybella Ewell.

Atticus provides sufficient evidence to demonstrate that two hands were needed to attack the lady. Curiously, Tom's left arm was injured during a factory accident years earlier, and he was unable to move it. Boo Radley is also another symbol of a mocking bird. He is portrayed as an evil mutant that lives in the basement of his parent's home because he isn't fit to live in a normal society.

Boo first is linked with the mocking bird when Jem and Scout are on their way to the Halloween pageant and are attack. Boo saves the children and helps Jem back to his house. The children begin to learn that Boo is not the person that they had feared their entire lives, but an innocent man, who like the mocking bird, persecuted by gossip and attitudes towards him. Boo Radley attempts friendship with the children by leaving small presents such as; wooden dolls, twine and gum in a nest of a tree. As the novel draws to a conclusion the children begin to realise that the only thing to do is to leave Boo Radley alone. To Kill a Mockingbird was an influential novel at the time it was written.

However, it remains just as important, influential and certainly as symbolic today as when it was first written. The symbolism of the title emphasises some of the narrow-mindedness and prejudices that exist today. Previous generation's immoral and inhuman treatment of coloured people still exists today, and will continue should we allow these racially prejudiced people to denigrate one of God's people.