To+Kill aMockingbird

“Shoot all the blue jays you want, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” There are some people in this world that are these birds, doing nothing wrong and just exciting to make lives better, or, in a way, “make music for us to enjoy.” In the story __ To Kill a Mockingbird __, by Harper Lee, these people are Tom Robinson, a colored man that was thought to be a criminal, and Arthur “Boo” Radley, a neighbor that is believed to be something he’s not. We see through the story how they show that they are mockingbirds and how these misunderstandings are seen by Scout, the curious young girl who is the narrator of the story, to be a mistake.

Tom Robinson, a kind, thoughtful person accused of raping a young women. Being judged on the color of his skin, instead of who he, was caused the thoughts of him being of him being the one to do it to become truth. In truth though, everyone believed there were no facts to back this up, no way to prove he did this and that he was just a nice helpful man. “No suh, not after she offered me a nickel the first time. I was glad to do it, Mr. Ewell didn’t seem to help her none, and neither did the chilun, and I knowed she didn’t have no nickel to spare.”(page 191) To think it was a sin to kiss someone of the opposite color was the cause of this, racism. Working to help someone to help someone out for free because you feel bad for them, and being killed for that is the sin in this predicament. Tom Robinson, his own mockingbird, did nothing but be nice to people who were the most mean.

Then there’s Boo Radley. “Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom. People said he existed, but Jem and I have never seen him. People said he went out at night when the moon was down, and peeped in windows. When people’s azaleas froze in a cold snap, it was because he breathed on them.”(page8-9) This was Scouts view on Boo, a creepy, insane man who feed off raw animals and watched people as they slept. As the story goes on, so does Scouts curiosity of the elided “Boo”. Though out this Scout and Jem find a series of strange, but in there own way unique, gifts, that were set in a tree’s knothole by the Radley lot, which were set there by none other than Boo. In the end of the story, when Scout finally gets to see and meet Mr. Arthur Radley, she sees that the description of Boo is not this man; this man is a shy, kindhearted being, not some savage. Scout sees this in him, and said, “Well, it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?” and she is correct. She looks past all the rumors and finds the mockingbird that he is, the mockingbird that gave her and her brother gifts, the mockingbird saved their lives.

When people are smaller it seems there is more to see in the world than when they are grown. It’s hard to grasp the though of what is considered “right” and “wrong”. They don’t understand why it’s right to think things about things, like the people in this book do. There, everyone is taught on how different people in the town are to each other. There’s the top class, the middle class, the low class, and below all of them are the black people. They are all raised to believe this is how life is and this is how you should act torts them. Children have a hard time understanding this and often need it to be explained to them. In the story, this happens many times with Jem, Scout and Dill. One case Calpurnia, a colored woman that works for the Finch’s, has to explain to Scout why no one would give Helen, Tom Robinson’s wife, a job. “‘Cal, I know Tom Robinson’s in jail an’ he’s done somethin’ awful, but why won’t folks hire Helen?’ I asked… ‘It’s because of what folks say Tom’s done,’ she said. ‘Folks aren’t anxious to-to have anything to do with any of his family.’” Children have such open minds, free to think what they will, and sometimes what they think is more of what opinions on things should be like. So in a way, kids are better at gauges of morality, but they end up the same as everyone else in the end, believing what is wrong.

Mockingbirds, a simplistic animal of nature, created only to make a beautiful song. There are many mockingbirds in __ To Kill a Mockingbird __, all of them misunderstood or though to be something else. This story shows that everyone has a little bit of “mockingbird” in them, even if you need to search for it, it’s there. Whether it be down the street in a old, creepy house, or in a crowded court, it’s there.