To Kill A Mockingbird Scapegoat Quotes

“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…” (Lee, p. 90). Mockingbirds symbolize goodness and innocence in this book. According to Dictionary.com, a scapegoat is “a person or group made to bear the blame for others or to suffer in their place.” In this book, Tom Robinson represents a scapegoat and Jem Finch and Boo Radley are two of the characters that represent mockingbirds.

Tom Robinson is a scapegoat because he was convicted of a crime that he did not commit. Tom should’ve been set free but instead he was forced to take on the consequences of Bob and Mayella Ewell’s crime. It was clear that Tom was

At the beginning of the book, Jem is an innocent child. He takes part in the Boo Radley game with no regard to the people in the Radley house that can hear him and the other children making fun of Boo. Jem soon begins to realize that Boo is more than just childhood superstition and he is not the monster that the town makes him out to be. Jem’s view of what bravery is grows throughout the story, as well. At the beginning of the book, Jem’s definition of bravery is touching the Radley house and he believes himself to be brave because, “In all his life, Jem had never declined a dare” (Lee, p.13). By the end of the book, Jem shows true bravery when trying to protect his sister, Scout, from Bob Ewell’s attack. During the trial, Jem becomes aware of the evil inflicted on Tom Robinson and it ruins his innocence. He is forced to confront the racism and injustice that surrounds him in the town of Maycomb. These events make Jem a mockingbird injured by the world around

He is a kind, innocent man that loves Jem and Scout as if they were his own. The town views Boo as a monster, but as he leaves gifts for the children and mends Jem’s pants, the reader begins to see his true nature and learns that he is misjudged by society. Boo also saves the lives of Jem and Scout. In the process of saving the kids, Boo had to kill Bob Ewell. By killing Mr. Ewell; Boo Radley killed his innocence. After the attack, Boo gently carried Jem to Atticus so that Dr. Reynolds could take a look at him. At first, Atticus thought that Jem had killed Mr. Ewell, but Mr. Tate insisted that he fell on his knife. As they were arguing, Atticus realised that Boo had killed Mr. Ewell. Atticus and Mr. Tate knew that Boo would be killed if the town found out that he had killed Bob Ewell, and so they agreed that Mr. Ewell fell on his knife. When Atticus asked Scout if she understood the situation, she said “...Mr. Tate was right... it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?” (Lee, p. 276). Scout plainly said that Boo Radley is a mockingbird and the events in the story prove it to be true.

To kill a mockingbird is to kill one’s innocence and although there were other “mockingbirds” in the book, Jem Finch and Boo Radley were definitely important ones. Their innocence was killed by the evil in the world around them and that’s what makes them mockingbirds. Tom Robinson sadly died because of a crime