To Kill a Mockingbird
Uploaded by Ewing on Mar 26, 2001
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the Mockingbird was used to symbolize those characters who were senselessly harmed by others yet harmless themsleves. In this novel, certain individuals were singled out by society simply because they were different than many others. People are often affraid of what they are not accustomed to in everyday life. Therefore these certain individuals are viewed as outcasts to society for no certain reason at all, such as skin color.
One character who was symbolized by the mockingbird was a black man, Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson was a man who had been wrongly viewed by society. Society viewed him as just a black man living in a white man’s world. He was thought to be a bad person just because he was black. In reality, people might have liked him if they just got to know him. Tom Robinson can be compared to the senseless slaughter of a mockingbird beacuse he was killed just simply for the color of his skin.
Another character who was symbolized by the mockingbird was Boo Radley. Boo was a man who was seen by society to be dangerous. Actually, Boo was kind and gentle. Children played games making fun of him because he never came out of his house. Boo came to Jem and Scouts rescue when they were attcaked by Bob Ewell going home from the Halloween Party. Its very easy to make assumptions about other people who they do not know about. People viewed him according to what they had heard. Its easy for one false rumor to spread into something that hurts one individual’s identity.
The characters were thought to be outcasts just because of skin color and just simply becasue they are not the same. If these two individuals on a inner or personal level, they might have been viewed differently by the people of Maycomb. In this novel, the reason people treated others wrongly who were different was because they did not appear to be on the outside as everyone else. The slaughter of a mockingbird can be compared to this because it’s a harmless creature who has never harmed anyone just as these individuals described.