To Kill A Mockingbird Research Paper

“To Kill a Mockingbird” is a best-selling novel written in the 1960’s, by esteemed author Harper Lee who explores the social issues of racial discrimination and prejudice in the 1930s. The author constructed “To Kill a Mockingbird” not as an autobiography but as a recount of the racial prejudice she witnessed in her early childhood. In creating the fictional community of Maycomb County and the unfolding tragedy that takes place, Lee shines a light on the segregation and immense amounts of violence that surrounded the American nation during what is commonly known as the Jim Crow era. Published at the height of the “American Civil rights movement” the novel flourished “in the racially charged society” (Britannica 2023), highlighting the deeply

This is clearly shown through the use of the characters, Boo Radley and Tom Robinson, both are innocent, both have been wronged by the injustices of evil. The connection between these characters and the novel is shown through the use of the mockingbird when Mr. Underwood states “the senseless slaughter of songbirds” soon after Tom Robinson was shot. Towards the end of the book scout references Boo Radley thinking killing him would be like “shootin a mockingbird” this directly correlates with the linkage between the mockingbird and its portrayal of innocence. “Your father's right,” she said. “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.” (Chapter 10). The symbol is prominent throughout the novel, Lee constantly uses it as a way of approaching the readers emotions and positioning them to understand the innocence that is found and how quickly it can be stripped away by the systematic racism that surrounded the County at the time, such as when Tom Robinson is found guilty of raping a young white woman. His innocence is stripped even with the overwhelming evidence by his side, inexplicitly ‘killing the mockingbird’. Furthermore, Maycomb County’s ideology that “Negro men should not be trusted around women” (Page 223), further reinforces the maltreatment of the negros. Harper Lee uses Tom and the Mockingbird to link back to the fact that’s its immoral to kill someone or something that never harmed anyone. Lee uses it as a powerful symbol that signifies the importance of innocence and kindness like a mockingbird. Consequently, signifying the fact that it can be taken at any second through the characterisation of Tom Robinson making the