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108 pages 3 hours read

Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1960

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Symbols & Motifs

Guns and Violence

Throughout To Kill A Mockingbird, guns serve as a shorthand for violence. Though the precise tone and message of this shorthand evolves throughout the book, each appearance of a gun raises new questions about the necessity of violence (and the peril it brings to those close to us).

In the southern world of Maycomb, guns are considered an essential part of life, to the degree that—upon reluctantly gifting his children guns for Christmas—Atticus claims he’s “bowing to the inevitable” (91). The guns are gifted, however, with firm cautions as to how they should be used. Atticus explains that they’re allowed to “shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em,” but they must “remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (103). Miss Maudie later illuminates the importance of this advice, explaining that mockingbirds “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” (103). In other words, Atticus establishes that it is a sin to exact violence on innocent creatures who have done no harm to those around them.

Atticus’s policy toward non-violence is put to the test, however, when he shoots the rabid Old Tim Johnson, a dog formerly thought of as “the pet of Maycomb” (105). Atticus demonstrates considerable talent with his gun, killing the dog in just one shot. When the Finch children ask Miss Maudie why he never previously revealed his shooting talent, she explains, “he put his gun down when he realized that God had given him an unfair advantage over most living things. I guess he decided he wouldn’t shoot till he had to, and he had to today” (112). Though Atticus was reluctant to exert his power over a helpless dog—which, as “the pet of Maycomb,” serves as a stand-in for Maycomb’s community—he accepted the necessity of violence to protect that very community.

This same complex logic is applied to Atticus’s defense of Tom Robinson, particularly when he stands down the lynch mob of “people [the Finch family] know[s]” (179). Though Atticus dislikes the idea of confronting their friends and neighbors, he knows it is necessary to do so in order to protect Tom Robinson, who is also a member of Maycomb’s community. This connection is confirmed by Scout, when she collates these two memories of Atticus:

I was very tired, and was drifting into sleep when the memory of Atticus calmly folding his newspaper and pushing back his hat became Atticus standing in the middle of an empty waiting street, pushing up his glasses. The full meaning of the night’s events hit me and I began crying (177).

The novel also collates the incident where Nathan Radley shoots at Jem and the prison guard’s shooting of Tom Robinson (who is Black). The string of connections—between Jem, “the pet of Maycomb,” and Tom Robinson—is made explicit when Miss Stephanie gossips about the incident, saying Nathan Radley is waiting to shoot someone and doesn’t care if it’s a dog, a Black person, or Jem. This collapsing between different people and different acts of violence comes full circle at the end of the novel, when Atticus and Heck Tate debate whether Bob Ewell was killed by Jem or Boo Radley. Thus, in To Kill A Mockingbird, different members of the community bleed into one another.

Mockingbirds

In the symbolic scope of To Kill A Mockingbird, the mockingbird is connected with any innocent or vulnerable person who is the victim of violence (and violent misunderstanding). Specifically—as per Miss Maudie’s definition—the mockingbird is a creature who hasn’t done anything wrong, but is nevertheless wrongfully accused or threatened (just as Tom Robinson is wrongfully accused of raping Mayella Ewell).

The numerous “mockingbirds” of the novel include Jem, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley, and their mockingbird status is flagged with illustrative language. Jem’s last name—Finch—suggests comparison to the similarly-delicate bird. Boo Radley is described as having “feathery” (310) hair. In Mr. Underwood’s editorial, which bemoans the shooting of Tom Robinson, he compares it to “the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children” (275).

Sin and Religion

In To Kill A Mockingbird, the motif of sin and religion is equally convoluted and open to interpretation. It is telling, however, that Miss Maudie characterizes “foot-washing Baptists” (50) as people who believe everything pleasurable is a sin, then explains that Boo Radley’s father was himself a “foot-washer.” The novel thus implies that Mr. Radley’s oppressive religious beliefs generated a sense of anxiety and inferiority in Boo.

Between the novel’s title and its comparisons between Boo Radley and a mockingbird, Harper Lee suggests a dark undertone to religious zealotry. In attempting to violently shut out the “sin” of pleasure, religious people often commit the one true sin: the violent shaming of an innocent being.

This idea of “sin” is affirmed when Heck Tate effectively stands up for Boo Radley, refusing to let him accept the blame for Bob Ewell’s death: “To my way of thinkin’, Mr. Finch, taking the one man who’s done you and this town a great service an’ draggin’ him with his shy ways into the limelight—to me, that’s a sin. It’s a sin and I’m not about to have it on my head” (317). 

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