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How Is Atticus Portrayed In To Kill A Mockingbird

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“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy . . . but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”(Lee, 119) Miss Maudie says this towards the middle of the book, when she and Atticus are talking to Scout about killing mockingbirds. This is how mockingbirds are represented in the book To Kill A Mockingbird. Mockingbirds are innocent and only do good, and that is how some of the characters are in the novel. In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and Atticus Finch represent mockingbirds. because they don’t harm anyone and are often misunderstood. Atticus is a lawyer and defends a black man on trial, which is despised by many of the people in Maycomb County. Tom Robinson …show more content…

Towards the end of the book, the sheriff Heck Tate speaks out against Atticus on what he thinks is right. Boo Radley is under suspicion of killing Bob Ewell, and Heck Tate doesn’t want to arrest Boo. To Heck Tate, Boo didn’t kill Bob Ewell so he hasn’t done any harm, and he never has in the past either. Heck Tate says, “To my way of thinkin’, Mr. Finch, taking the one man who’s done you and this town a great service an‘ draggin’ him with his shy ways into the limelight—to me, that’s a sin. It’s a sin and I’m not about to have it on my head. If it was any other man, it’d be different. But not this man, Mr. Finch."(370). This explains that Boo Radley hasn’t done anything wrong in the past, and in that way he is like a mockingbird. Boo did kill Bob Ewell, but bringing him to court explained how he saved the kids. Boo didn’t want this because he did not want to come out into public. After Tate says this about Boo, Scout realizes how bad this is for him. Scout tells Atticus, “Well, it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?”(370). This explains how if Heck Tate were to arrest Boo Radley, it would be like shooting a mockingbird because Boo did save the kids. There were still more characters in the book who represent …show more content…

These three characters are innocent, and hadn’t harmed anyone. They are also misunderstood. Mockingbirds don’t do much, they are innocent. To kill one is a sin. For people, this would be like accusing an innocent person for something they didn’t do. This really isn’t okay, and unfair to the innocent person. It could also be prejudicing people for the color of their skin, or spreading untrue rumors about someone else. Mockingbirds are innocent, and people who are represented as them are quite often innocent as well. To be considered a mockingbird is a good thing. It would mean that you haven’t done anything wrong, and you are innocent. Many people today should strive to be like mockingbirds, because the world would be so much better off with people causing hardly any harm to one another. Mockingbirds don’t cause any harm to anyone, and that’s what people today should strive to do. Just think, how much better would life be if everyone was kind to one another and didn’t cause any

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They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us (Lee page 90).” This quote reveals that mockingbirds are innocent, and that it would be unfair to target them, because they do not do one thing that would give a person reason too. Later in the story when the trial is going on, during Toms testimony he states,” she reached up and kissed me on the side of my face (Lee page 194).”

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‘Boo Radley. You were so busy looking at the fire you didn’t know it when he put the blanket around you’”(Lee 76). This quote yet again shows that Boo Radley has nothing but good intentions. He acts with kindness despite the fact that the children he is helping are the same ones who have attempted to torment him many times. He is often seen as a scary man and one that does not abide by the way Maycomb functions

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If Mr. Ewell had not been killed, the Finch children would be dead instead. Boo is a timid individual who prefers to stay in the dark than to be brought to negative or positive attention. He does not want praise or retribution for preventing murders with a murder. Even though he does not have the courage to defend himself, Heck Tate understands the situation and bends the rules minutely to ensure the safety of others. Arresting Boo Radley is “sort of like [shooting] a mockingbird” (276).

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The reason that Boo could fight off a man with a knife I that he brings one of his own. This knife is found and taken by a sheriff named Heck Tate because it can be evidence against Boo which will mean a whole new court case against the murder of Bob Ewell. The sheriff did not want this because he knows Boo is innocent. Atticus is originally against this idea but then says to himself that “it would sorta be like shootin’ a mockingbird wouldn’t it?” (Lee 316).

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Tate and Atticus’ discussing what happened to Scout and Jem the night they came back from the high school. In the beginning Atticus thought that Jem was the one who killed Mr. Ewell when he attacked them, but Mr.Tate explained that it was not Jem, that it was Boo Radley. On the front porch after the attack Mr. Tate tells Atticus what he thinks about bringing what happened to court and the town: “‘To my way of thinkin’, Mr. Finch, taking the one man who’s done you and this town a great service an’ draggin’ him with this shy ways into the limelight--to me, that’s a sin and I’m not about to have it on my head’”(369-370). Lee uses the word “sin” as a way to connect Boo to a mockingbird.

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Mockingbirds are an important symbol because they represent goodness and innocence. In this book, Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are two innocent men, similar to mockingbirds, who get taken advantage of due to their innocence. Atticus and Miss Maudie teach Scout and Jem that it’s a sin to harm anything innocent by using the example of mockingbirds. Mockingbirds are innocent because they only positively affect people through their singing.

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