Miss Maudie's A Sin To Kill A Mockingbird

In the historical fiction novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the issues of racial inequality and injustice towards the innocent are exposed and clearly stated. The novel is a story of a young girl and her coming of age in the Deep South. As she grows in age, she begins to understand the unjust ways of the world, and how some people who are accused, such as Tom Robinson and Arthur “Boo” Radley, are faultless. Lee’s symbol of the mockingbird is a representation of these characters. She shares her opinion that it is a sin, physically and verbally, to attack them. The mockingbird is a symbol of innocence, and therefore killing a mockingbird is a sin. Atticus says, “…but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (90). Miss Maudie says afterwards, “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 corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us” (90). Miss Maudie gives an explanation of how the mockingbird is innocent, because it does nothing but benefit others. By listing the ways the mockingbird benefits others and saying it does nothing wrong, Lee, through the character of Miss Maudie, explains the symbol of the mockingbird: someone or something that does not harm others,

‘Scout,’ he said, ‘Mr. Ewell fell on his knife. Can you possibly understand?’” Scout replies with, “Well, it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?” (276). By saying “shooting the mockingbird,” Lee means to attack someone who is without fault. Scout understands that by telling Maycomb that Bob Ewell killed himself, “Boo,” the “mockingbird,” is saved from unwanted attention that could potentially hurt him. Tom Robinson and “Boo” Radley are the most obvious examples of “mockingbirds,” but there are also several other, more subtle “mockingbirds” throughout the