Wednesday, May 21, 2014

What is Harper Lee trying to get across with the mockingbird symbols and motif and the importance of the name Finch?Harper Lee's To Kill a...

The bird symbolism is significant in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.  Atticus Finch, who is the moral voice of the novel, is like his nomenclature, the finch, that is a quiet bird which does not like stress. It is not a noisy bird either, much like the modest and reticent Atticus.


Indigenous to Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi, mockingbirds do not have a song of their own, but imitate other birds'.  As Atticus tells the children, they are not mean like the Jaybird who eats the eggs of other birds.  But, as Miss Maudie tells the children, "mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy."  Thus, these birds are a symbol of innocence.  As such, they represent Tom Robinson, who is kind and merely victimized by society (the bluejays).  Likewise, Boo Radley is harmless and also victimized by the cruelty of the children and the "neighborhood scold," Miss Stephanie Crawford.


The mockingbird symbol and motif is also the device by which Lee unifies the two plot elements of her novel as the first part is concerned with the first mockingbird, Boo Radley, while the second part is concerned with the second mockingbird, Tom Robinson. Both harmless, they are persecuted by society.

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