Suffering In To Kill A Mockingbird

Innocence, goodness, and beauty... all things that symbolize a Mockingbird, but sometimes it’s not always the obvious Mockingbirds that are “killed”. In the hit novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Lee exposes many characters who undergo segregation, depreciation, lack of wealth, and most importantly abuse within the small community of Macomb, Alabama. Two main characters Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are symbols of Mockingbirds, who represent innocence, goodness, and beauty and in the end suffer or are said to be, “The killed Mockingbirds”. However; these are not the only characters who are considered Mockingbirds. Scout Finch and Mayella Ewell are also considered Mockingbirds because of the suffering they undergo and most importantly

Scout and Mayella both undergo severe punishment and suffering, and both of these topics relate back to segregation. Scout was the daughter of the towns lawyer Atticus Finch. In the novel Atticus takes a case that he will be defending a black man accused of rape. This was not accepted in the community of Macomb mostly because it was in the south during the mid-1900’s. So because of this not only did Atticus suffer but Scout was not accepted in school with any groups and heard her father be called more names than she could count. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout says, “Cecil Jacobs made me forget. He had announced in the schoolyard the day before that Scout Finch’s daddy defended African Americans”(Lee 129). This quote is what led scout to let her fists fly and when her father and brother found out she was to be punished and ashamed. This was problematic because Scout was innocent and was only trying to stand up for her family name as well as her fathers dignity and she ended up suffering by being punished and outcasted in the family for a few days. Another example of Scout suffering was when she visited Finch’s Landing. This was a place of history for the Finch family. She and her family visited the landing for Christmas with Uncle

Evidence pointed to her falling in love with a black man and her abusive father caught her one day. It was not proven that she was not raped but the evidence clearly shows she was beaten and the alleged rapist only had one arm. There were bruises on the left side of her face showing that someone with a dominant left hand had hit her and that person was clearly her father. One day her father caught Mayella kissing a black man by the name of Tom Robinson. He escaped but Mayella wasn’t so lucky and was clearly beaten badly by her father. She was and innocent beautiful young girl who was only in love with a black man and because of this her father beat her. She also had to testify in court in which she was petrified of her father beating her again had she had no choice but to testify against Tom. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout explained “Then she burst into real tears. Her shoulders shook with angry sobs. She was as good as her word” (Lee 319). This quote helps explain the stress Mayella was under on the witness stand. She knew had she slipped one bit and gave evidence that her father really beat her, that she was as good as dead. It also helped provide another example as to why she related to the title of the novel. Before this she was and innocent beautiful girl going about her life and because what she chose wasn't to be accepted by her