The Mockingbird Meaning In the story To Kill a Mockingbird, a lawyer in a small Alabama town in the 30’s defends a black man that was accused of rape. During this time, he is in the middle of raising his children, Scout and Jem, and teaching them to be against prejudice. Harper Lee uses the symbol of the mockingbird in order to show human compassion.

The phrase “to kill a mockingbird” is first introduced after Scout and Jem get their first guns. Atticus told the children to shoot all the blue jays they wanted, if they could hit them, but remember that it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. A few days later, Scout asks Miss Maudie what Atticus meant by that. She answers that “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 anything but sing their hearts out for us.”

The people in the book that are shown to be the “mockingbirds” are Arther “Boo” Radley and Tom Robinson. What Boo does is that he saves the children, but kills Bob Ewell in the process. If Heck Tate told the town that Boo killed Bob, then Heck Tate would be “killing” Boo because Boo does not like attention. Heck Tate said “To my way of thinking, Mr. Finch, taking the man who’s done you and this town a great service an’ draggin’ him with his shy ways into the limelight-to me that’s a sin.” What Tom Robinson does that makes him a “mockingbird” is that he was accused for raping Mayella Ewell. He did not sing his heart out, but he helped Mayella with house chores. He was accused when he did nothing