To_Kill_a_Mocking_Bird

‘To Kill a Mockingbird’: Discuss the significance of the title At first, it seems like the title ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ does not make much sense or have any relation to the story. Somehow, this draws the reader into reading the story, trying to find out more and understand its significance. Even though the title has very little to do with the actual book but it turns out to be very symbolic. The mockingbird has a very deep and powerful meaning in the novel. In Chapter 10, the theme of ‘it's a sin to kill a mockingbird’ begins to emerge and the title is mentioned for the first time, when Atticus gives Jem and Scout air rifles as Christmas presents. He tells them, "I'd rather you shoot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." Mockingbirds are harmless, whereas blue jays are aggressive and loud, making them the opposite of mockingbirds. Miss Maudie also explains what Atticus means in more detail by saying, ‘Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to. . . . . That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird’. The author uses the mockingbird as a symbol of innocence. Thus, to kill a mockingbird is to destroy innocence. As the story continues, the title ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ turns into a metaphor for the wrong of abusing innocent people, which compares the mockingbird to Tom Robinson, a black man. He is accused of raping a white young woman. Tom Robinson is an innocent man accused for a crime that he didn't commit. All he did was what Mayella Ewell, a white woman asked him to do; to help her. He never harmed he, he helped her because he felt sorry for her, for that she was brought up savagely in a brutal environment with a father who’s not at all intellectual and hatred surrounding her. 'Yes suh. I felt right sorry for her, she seemed to try more'n the rest of 'em-', he felt sorry for Mayella who was his accuser, while in fact Tom should have been the one Mayella felt sympathy for. The statement left everyone in the courtroom, in shocked as for Maycomb, it is assumed that black people will be poorer, less moral and are not supposed to feel sorry for a white person. This is evidenced in Mr. Gilmer’s speech to Tom Robinson after his statement,’ 'You felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for her'' The Ewells does not fit into any categories in society. They have no education, no money, basically they got nothing. The only thing that keeps them in this level of the society, lowest among the whites, is the fact that they are white. Mayella wants a better place in society where someone notices her existance, this is evidenced by the red geraniums which she grows in the filthy yard. She also wants a better life for herself, but in her situation a change is unlikely as she doesn’t have anywhere to go or anyone to help. She is isolated from the rest of the society and is very lonely, resulting craves in human contact. And in order to get this she tries to seduce a black man (Tom Robinson). It is assumed that black men are evils and will be attracted to white women, while white women is sexually attracted to black man, so it is pretty shocking for the people in Maycome to hear that a white woman is sexually attracted to black man. When Tom was accused of raping Mayella by Mayella’s father, Bob Ewell, it is similar to a mocking bird being shot down. There is a wide range of evidence that Tom is innocent, for example, Mayella’s blackened right eye. In order for Tom to blacken Mayella’s right eye, he would have to use his left arm. However, Tom is physically disabled; his left arm shorter than his right, so it is impossible for him to blackened Mayella’s eye. But still, the extreme prejudice against black people makes the people in Maycomb think that he is guilty. When in actual fact it is clearly Bob Ewell who was violent to his daughter. Tom is being used by Bob Ewell as a scapegoat for a crime that he didn’t commit.