To Kill a Mocking Bird

Essay by adanr262046 June 2004

download word file, 3 pages 3.0

The novel To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee, is a narration by a young girl named Jean-Louise Finch, her nickname is Scout. Her older brother's name is Jem Finch and her father's name is Atticus Finch. Their family resides in the town of Maycomb County, Alabama. The story takes place in the 1930's during The Great Depression. Throughout the novel, Scout re-tells her experiences as a child growing up during an age of racism and oppression. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, it is a sin to kill a mockingbird.

Mockingbirds are innocent creatures. They do not destroy other people's gardens. They do not annoy local residents. They are as innocent as anything in this world comes. Miss Maudie explains to Scout why it is a sin to kill a mockingbird:

"Your father's right," she said. "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 corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." (90)

It is a sin to kill a mockingbird because it is pure evil to destroy innocence. Mockingbirds are innocent things, and it would be a sin to destroy them.

In Harper Lee's novel, Boo Radley is a mockingbird. He is an example of innocence destroyed by evil. This evil is the harsh rumors going around town about him. Jem gives a description of Boo:

Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dine on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained--if you ate an animal raw, you could never was the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what...