An assessment of the symbol of the mockingbird in the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
             Atticus advises his children one day that if they go hunting for birds to "shoot all the blue jays [they] want, if you can hit'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" (96). Miss Maudie, an outstanding woman, further explains this by saying that "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" (96) Blue jays are considered to be the "bullies" of the bird world. They are loud, territorial and aggressive. The blue jays represent the biased bullies of Maycomb, such as Bob Ewell, an uncivilized man who almost brings two children to their death. Mockingbirds, on the other hand, are innocent creatures that bring joy by singing their beautiful songs, they would never harm anyone. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee reveals the theme of prejudice through the use of mockingbirds throughout the story.
             It is easy to understand that the mockingbird in the story is Tom Robinson, a harmless man who becomes a victim of racial prejudice. Like the mockingbird, Tom has never done any wrong to anyone, he was a harmless creature who tried to help anyone he could, even Mayella Ewell, a white girl who brings Tom to trial, by helping her chop up a "chiffarobe, a old dresser full of drawers on one side" (184). During the trial, Mr. Link Deas, Tom's employer, comments on Tom, stating that "[Tom's] worked for me for eight years an' I ain't had a speck o'trouble outa him. Not a speak!" (195). Even the jurors who sentence Tom have nothing personal against him. They find him guilty because they feel that to take the word of a black man over tw
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