Throughout Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the author creates a society abounding in injustice, resulting in an unfair classification of people based on their race and their social status. It is a sin to kill a mockingbird because they are innocent creatures that do not hurt anyone because all they do is sing their hearts out to people. Tom Robinson, Atticus Finch and Jem Finch symbolize the innocent mockingbird as they experience unjust punishments.First and foremost, the good hearted man Tom Robinson serve as a mockingbird in the sense that he loses his life just because he tried to be helpful without causing any harm to someone. First Tom is accused of rape just because he felt sorry for Mayella Ewell and tried to be helpful to her. When giving his testimony he says, “Yes, suh. I felt right sorry for her, she seemed to try more’n the rest of ’em….” (265). Since they are in a society where segregation is very prominent, it is not well seen for a black man to show compassion to a white lady no matter the motive. Throughout the whole trial, it is depicted how Tom does not want to embarrass Mayella by choosing his words well and saying them respectfully. Secondly, Atticus Finch the only one who stood up to defend Tom Robinson and what he believed in which is equality amongst people and, instead of gaining people’s respect with his high moral standard, he was publicly ridiculed and called a negro lover. Atticus defends Tom for the right reasons as he says, “The main one is, if I didn’t I couldn’t hold up my head in town, I couldn’t represent this county in the legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again”(). Which show us how serious he took the case but was still punished not for doing a bad job but for taking the side of
Throughout Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the author creates a society abounding in injustice, resulting in an unfair classification of people based on their race and their social status. It is a sin to kill a mockingbird because they are innocent creatures that do not hurt anyone because all they do is sing their hearts out to people. Tom Robinson, Atticus Finch and Jem Finch symbolize the innocent mockingbird as they experience unjust punishments.
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First and foremost, the good hearted man Tom Robinson serve as a mockingbird in the sense that he loses his life just because he tried to be helpful without causing any harm to someone. First Tom is accused of rape just because he felt sorry for Mayella Ewell and tried to be helpful to her. When giving his testimony he says, “Yes, suh. I felt right sorry for her, she seemed to try more’n the rest of ’em….” (265). Since they are in a society where segregation is very prominent, it is not well seen for a black man to show compassion to a white lady no matter the motive. Throughout the whole trial, it is depicted how Tom does not want to embarrass Mayella by choosing his words well and saying them respectfully.
Secondly, Atticus Finch the only one who stood up to defend Tom Robinson and what he believed in which is equality amongst people and, instead of gaining people’s respect with his high moral standard, he was publicly ridiculed and called a negro lover. Atticus defends Tom for the right reasons as he says, “The main one is, if I didn’t I couldn’t hold up my head in town, I couldn’t represent this county in the legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again”(). Which show us how serious he took the case but was still punished not for doing a bad job but for taking the side of a black man.
Finally, Jeremy Atticus Finch, who serves as a symbolic mockingbird, is a little boy who is very protective about his younger Jean Louise mostly known as Scout. When Scout had a pageant at school, he willingly volunteered to take her there, that was a way to help out Atticus. When they arrive at the pageant, Scout realizes that she forgot her money and Jem gave her some money “here’s thirty cents, you can do six things, see you later on”(). While coming back from the pageant they were attacked by Bob Ewell and Jem end up with a broken arm. Jem did not do anything wrong. The only thing he wanted to do was to accompany his beloved sister to the pageant, but he got his arm badly broken.
To sum up, Tom Robinson, Atticus Finch and Jeremy Atticus Finch symbolize the innocent mockingbird as they experience unjust punishments. It should be noted that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird and some people are being punished for helping others and some for doing what is right.