Symbolism of “To Kill a Mockingbird”

Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.” A mockingbird symbolizes the good in people. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, people in the town jump to bad conclusions before knowing what really happened. This does not show a mockingbird, this shows the bad about the town. Scout’s family is already educated and they do not have the same opinion about people as other town folks. Scout knows more than the teacher, and her father taught her how to read and write before she went to school. Scout is very intelligent, but she can struggle to focus on principles taught by her father by getting caught up on the rumors around town.

To start off Tom Robinson is a black field hand and he is employed to Link Deas. Tom is accused of raping and beating Mayella Ewell because he is black and she is white. Scout does not think Tom rape and beat her but everybody in town thinks he did. Also, they think badly because he is black and not white. Blacks and whites were not supposed to mingle. They were segregated, and they cannot be in the same place at the same time. Scout’s family does not believe blacks and whites should be separated. During the trial, Jem and Scout went on the balcony and sat with the blacks. Another person who is similar to Scout is Mr. Dolphus Raymond he would rather hang out with blacks than whites too.

Although, Tom being accused of raping and beating Mayella there’s another important topic. Walter Cunningham’s son was a classmate of Scout. He can never afford lunch, so he usually brought his own food, but he forgot one day. Miss. Maudie offered him a quarter so he could get lunch. He said he would not take it, but Miss Maudie did not understand what he meant. Scout went to explain how he would never ever take anything from someone. After explaining she got in trouble for trying to tell the teacher how it worked around here. Miss Maudie jumped to conclusions by yelling at Scout when she tried to explain about how Cunningham’s don’t take handouts. Cunningham’s do not feel good about taking them. They think they could never repay anyone back.

Finally, we have Scout actually gets mixed up and believed that Boo Radley actually dinned on raw squirrels and cats. His hands are always died red all the time, that’s from when you eat meat that raw or eat something you are not supposed to eat at that time. When unusual things happen in the town, they all think it was Boo Radley. Scout even believes the rumors of him because she thinks the same as the whole town. Boo did not mean any of it, or he actually did not do any of it at all it was just small town rumors like usual. He actually helped out Scout when Miss Maudie’s house burned down and everyone else was helps her out trying to save everything they could from her house. Boo snuck out and put a blanket on her. After that, he realizes he is not as bad as everyone thinks he is.

In the end Scout learned there is not evil if you do not see it. The town’s people did not learn anything because they thought they were right. They think they know better and they will not take what other people say into consideration. That why you could not jump to conclusions. You need to wait and see the two sides first.

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