To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Answers :: To Kill a Mockingbird Essays

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper leewardQuestion On giving Jem and Scout air rifles, Atticus tells them thatto kill a mockingbird is a sin. Miss Maudie explains thatmockingbirds only do one thing, and that is to babble out their hearts outfor us. Who ar the mockingbirds in the story, and how have they beenkilled by the society around them?Ideas The two main mockingbirds are Boo Radley and Tom Robinson, but in that location are others within the storyline.Boo Radley has been shut away from the world by his father and thenlater his brother through an incident which occurred fifteen historic periodearlier when he stabbed his father with a pair of scissors. Thesuggestion is that he had gone mad and should have been committed toan asylum. His influence in our story is all-good in that he givesgifts to the children, repairs Jems pants when they are caught on thefence and, of course, saves the childrens lives when Bob Ewellattacks them. Sheriff Tate recognizes the vulnerability of Boo a ndthat any publicity would destroy him, so he says that the death was anaccident.Tom Robinson is actually killed and his death is a sin committed bythe whole white community of Maycomb. All he tried to do was to abideby the rules of the society in which he lived and when a black personis asked to do a chore he obeys. The main enemies of birds are cats and lee(prenominal) describes Mayella as beinglike a steady-eyed cat with a twitchy tale and the bird she isfocusing on is of course, Tom Robinson. Lees description is that ofa cat stalking its prey.Jem to some degree was also a mockingbird. He went with Scout to theblack church in order to please Calpurnia, and the Rev. Sykes. Jemsuffers in that his juvenile idealism is shattered by the verdictgiven by the all-white jury at the trial.The pet-dog of Maycomb is called Tim Johnson, a bird-dog, who one dayacts strangely because he has caught rabies. He gave pleasure to thetownsfolk, but suddenly he now causes fear. So much so that even themockingbirds are silent. Atticus shoots the dog for the good of thewhole town.Question dissimilarity rears its ugly head in many forms withinthis story. Give examples of this.Ideas The obvious discrimination is that of the dominant whitecommunity over the subservient black community. They are not giventhe same opportunities regarding education, illustrated by the visitto the Negro church where only a few can read.