To Kill A Mockingbird, a novel by Harper Lee, reflects racial discrimination in Southern America. When Atticus Finch, one of the main characters in the novel, gives his children rifles for Christmas, Scout recounts that he warns them: "Never point at anything in the house; and that he'd rather I'd just shoot tin cans in the back yard. But he said sooner or later, he supposed, the temptation to go after birds would be too much and to shoot all the blue jays I wanted if I could hit them; but to remember, it was a sin to kill a mockingbird" (52). Mockingbirds often sing for people and they never destroy gardens but still many people hurt them. The mockingbirds are just like innocent and kind-hearted characters in the novel. Tom Robinson, Boo Radley and Mayella are all "mockingbirds". This novel's theme is do not judge anyone that you do not really know.
Tom Robinson is a mockingbird. He does not do anything bad to Mayella but Mayella tries to kiss him instead. Mayella's father, Bob Ewell is so angry when he witnesses this kiss that he decides to accuse Robinson in order to keep his and his daughter's reputations. In those days, the juries were composed of all white people but Tom Robinson is a black so everyone thinks he raped Mayella. That shows black people are not seen as equal to white people, and the white people judge black people just because of their race. Tom explains excitedly, "I can't move my left hand at all. I got it caught in a cotton gin when I was twelve years old. All my muscles were tore loose" (109). That shows the person that beats Mayella is not Tom Robinson. When Tom Robinson breaks loose and runs, the deputy shoots him. "He fired a few shots in the air and then when Tom didn't stop, the deputy lost his head, shot towards him, he says, to wound him, but missed his aim and killed him. He does not want to kill him" (125). Through his description, it sounds just like an accident.
