Harper Lee's, To Kill a Mockingbird, is a story of innocents destroyed by evil; the mockingbird came to represent the idea of innocence. Therefore, to kill a mockingbird means a loss of innocence. Throughout the book numerous characters can be identified as mockingbirds. Jem, Scout, Dill, and Boo all lost their innocence as they became more mature through their childhood experiences with one another. Tom Robinson is also an example of a mockingbird in this book by the injustice he receives as a colored man in Maycomb. The intention of this essay is to identify these characters and reasons for their loss of innocence throughout the book.
Scout is an example of a mockingbird. She is an innocent five-year old child whose wholesome heart had never had an encounter with evil. Jem and Scouts last name is Finch and indicated that they were particularly vulnerable in the racist world of Maycomb, which often treats the fragile innocence of childhood harshly. As the book progressed, her innocence was slowly taken away from her. When Scouts father tried to protect an innocent man from being convicted of a crime that he never committed, it showed us how she was exposed to this racial prejudice; this took away her innocence. When Jem and Scout received their first air rifle, their instinctive desire to shoot birds was taken for granted. Their father refused to teach them how to shoot, and warned them that it was a sin to kill a mockingbird. That was the only time that the children heard him call something a sin, reflecting how strongly he felt about the topic. Atticus told the children that they could shoot as many blue jays as they like; blue jays are colorful birds, with black crests atop their heads and vibrant patterns on their wings, but they were never to shoot a mockingbird. Which is ironic because the mockingbird is an ugly blackish color and was nothing compared to the blue jay's beauty.
