To Kill A Mockingbird Quotes

Camille Mischen

Mrs. Vande Guchte

Honors English 10 B

10 February 2022

To Kill a Mockingbird Essay

“Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (Lee 103) This is a famous quote from the novel To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee which takes place in Maycomb County, Alabama during the Great Depression. This novel follows six-year-old girl Scout Finch who grows up in a small town and as she’s growing up, she’s learning more about the truths of her town and the people in it. The majority of the book is about Scout's father, Atticus Finch, a lawyer who will defend a black man in court in the racist town of Maycomb. Scout grows and learns a lot from this case. In this novel, Harper

Mockingbirds are used frequently in this story as we can see the word mockingbird directly in the title of this book and whenever mockingbirds are being talked about, they are always seen as innocent and should never be harmed. Around Christmas time, the entire Finch family gets together and Atticus’s brother, Uncle Jack got the kids both rifles, Atticus is not a huge fan of guns but knows that no harm will come out of this. While discussing the rifles with the kids, Atticus says that he would prefer if the kids shot at tin cans instead of mockingbirds because mockingbirds are innocent. The kids don’t understand why he said this so they go to Miss Maudie, their friendly neighbor, to talk to her about it. Miss Maudie says, “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. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (Lee 103). From this, Miss Maudie is directly saying that we shouldn’t harm someone who has done nothing to be harmed for. We can connect this to Tom Robinson, who is an innocent black man who has been wrongfully convicted of a crime he did not commit. As the story continues and Tom has been put in jail, something unexpected happens. While Scout and her Aunt Alexandra are having a meeting with different women from the town, Atticus rushes in and calls the two of them and Calpurnia, their black housekeeper, into the kitchen. Atticus says, “Tom’s dead. Aunt Alexandra put her hands to her mouth. They shot him.” (Lee 268). Tom was attempting to escape the jail while running away he was shot 17 times and died. We know that Tom is the main mockingbird of this book and we also know that the book title is “To Kill a Mockingbird” which directly foreshadows the death of Tom Robinson. This is the biggest example of foreshadowing in this entire book