Who Is A Mockingbird?

In the novel ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, Harper Lee refers some people to the mockingbird (indirectly). Earlier on in the book Atticus stated ‘kill all the blue jays you want but remember it is a sin to kill a mockingbird’ which was then followed by Miss Maudie saying ‘mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy’. This implies that people who are mockingbirds are people who did nothing wrong and everyone should respect them. We also discussed in class that referring to someone as a mockingbird is similar to testing his/her innocence for wether or not they should be respected. A particular character that stands out to me is Atticus. before the Tom Robinson case Atticus was highly respected, everyone in Maycomb knew him and he had a good reputation. It was later when everyone found out about Atticus’ kindness and fairness towards black people and it was when he chose to defend Tom Robinson that people began to question his innocense. Atticus did not do anything wrong he was doing what is was meant to do by being fair and show that he does not care what other people think but cares about changing people’s mind and opinions about black people. This is similar to a mockingbird being born to sing its heart out. However, people still challenge Atticus’ innocence as they believe is is favouring black people other white people but they do not have the knowledge that Atticus’ is also doing this to teach Jem and Scout a lesson about equality and standing for what you believe is right.