To Kill a Mocking Bird - Babies and Mockingbirds

In the book, To Kill a Mocking Bird, the girl, Jean, learns several different lessons from her dad, Atticus, that help her delve deep into her character development. One of the lessons her dad teaches her is that to kill a mocking bird is a sin. This is more explained when Miss Maudie, the neighbor, says, “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 corn-cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it is a sin to kill a mockingbird.” This lesson links to the idea of slaughtering a baby. A baby is a symbol of pure innocence; they do not commit crimes or hurt anyone emotionally or physically. A child is the main source of happiness, they radiate good energy. Just like a mockingbird, when they sing their hearts out only to please the people. Thus, killing a baby is like killing a mockingbird, because in both cases you are killing something that only brings happiness and joy.

Killing something that causes no harm ties with the social issue of the book, racism. This is because when being racist a person is not looking at the others personality but their outer appearance. In my book Tom Robinson, the black man who is one of the mockingbirds, was accused of raping a white women. Previously, he used to help her by completing some of her chores, because he had seen that she lacked friends, thus he wanted to help her emotionally by befriending her, just like a mockingbird. Later, she accused him of raping her and that his intentions were wrong, which shows the idea of killing someone who only aimed to please. Accusing someone of rape has the ability to change that person internally, which is almost like killing them.