The Mockingbird Theme

The title of the novel alerts us to the importance of this theme. It comes
from an old proverb that it's a sin to kill a mockingbird. The children
first hear this from Atticus, when he gives them air rifles as Christmas
presents Chapter !"#. $e tells them the% should shoot onl% at tin&cans
but, seeing that the% ma% well shoot birds, allows them to shoot the ver%
common blue'a% regarded in the ()A rather as pigeons are in the (*#
but not mockingbirds. +odern readers, especiall% in the (*, where
man% bird species are protected b% law should note that hunting birds is
considered acceptable sport in most parts of ,urope and the ()A even
toda%. In the !-."s most children would have seen it as normal to hunt
animals and birds.#
)cout is pu//led b% this remark and asks +iss +audie Atkinson about
it. +iss +audie sa%s that0
+ockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to en'o%. The%
don't eat up people's gardens, the% don't nest in corncribs, the% don't do
one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's wh% it's a sin to kill a
mockingbird.
The mockingbird of the proverb is a harmless creature which does its
best to please its hearers b% singing, but which is defenceless against
hunters. 1erhaps hunters with a sense of sport would avoid the bird, as
being too eas% a target.# The wrongness of killing the bird is evident, but
it becomes a metaphor for the wrongness of harming innocent and
vulnerable people.
In the novel, while we associate the mockingbird generall% with weak
and defenceless people, there are two characters who are more
e2plicitl% likened to the bird. These are Tom 3obinson and Arthur
3adle%. 4h% are these two like the mockingbird5
Tom is ph%sicall% disabled, but his real weakness is his social position
&he is a black man, to whom a white woman has made se2ual
advances, so he must be destro%ed.
&Arthur is ps%chologicall% disadvantaged & he is ver% timid and almost
incapable of being integrated into +a%comb's societ%.
The author makes the comparison clearer in Chapter 67. $ere, 8.8.
(nderwood spells is out for his readers, writing in his editorial that it0
...was a sin to kill cripples, be the% standing, sitting or escaping. $e
likened Tom's death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds b% hunters
and chidren...
)cout notes that +r. (nderwood was writing so children could
understand. )he is a child and she understands. +an% of the novel's
readers will also be children. 9ou should be aware, though, that it was
written for adult readers. $arper :ee could not have foreseen that the
novel would become a set te2t for pupils in so man% schools.#
As the children set off for the pageant Chapter 6;#, <em hears a
mockingbird and 'okes that 8oo must not be at home. There is an
obvious iron% in that he is ver% wrong in associating 8oo with haints
and hot steams but is right in his 'oking suggestion that 8oo is not at
home. =ot onl% is 8oo out of doors or 'ust about to leave# but his doing
so is what delivers the children from real and ver% human danger, not
the gothic fantasies of $alloween. 8ut there are more odd pointers0
when the bird starts to sing, the children are in front of the 3adle% house
the bird is solitar% and
unaware whose tree he sat in
4hen $eck Tate Chapter ."# tells Atticus that he will not let 8oo be
e2posed to publicit%, he insists that ...draggin' him and his sh% wa%s
into the limelight... is ...a sin. It's a sin and I'm not about to have it on
m% head...
)cout shows that she understands +r. Tate completel%, when she sa%s0
4ell, it'd be sort of like shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn't it5
Atticus embraces )cout, to acknowledge that she is right.
Q 1.Explain the symbolism of the
mockingbird title in your own words.
2. The mockingbird has symbolic value in
! culture. "f you were to adapt the novel
for an Ecuadorian context what could be a
more appropriate symbol. Explain.