“Shoot All The Blue Jays If You Want, If You Can Hit’Em,

Tom Robinson is wrongfully convicted of rape and eventually killed in prison, whereas Boo Radley is killed emotionally because he is not accepted by society. Since it is a sin to kill a mockingbird, it is also a sin to kill innocent souls like Tom and Boo. When Scout tries to understand why it is a sin to kill a mockingbird, Miss Maudie elucidates Atticus’s opinion more clearly by stating, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy...They don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (103). Mockingbirds sing and make beautiful music; however they mimic the songs of other birds, so they are seen through others. Tom and Boo are like mockingbirds because they are subject to the perceptions of the people of Maycomb. The townspeople knew these characters based on what others said about them. Consequently, Tom and Boo do not have their own “song” and are portrayed by others’ views of them. The mockingbird emerges as a metaphor for the wrong in harming innocent and defenseless people.

On the other hand, Tom Robinson could also be the symbolic “mockingbird”. For instance, while examining Toms behavior, Scout realizes that, “Tom Robinson 's manners were as good as Atticus 's.” and say’s, “Until my father explained it to me later, I did not understand the subtlety of Tom 's predicament: he would not have dared strike a white woman under any circumstances and expect to live long, so he took the first opportunity to run” (Lee 197) This belief indicates that Tom is a very polite gentleman who is innocent. Being a man of color, he ran that night as self defence, not because he did something wrong. He did not want to hurt Mayella, as the gentleman he is, but in such circumstances he was forced to do so. Therefore, during the trial, he does not claim that mayella is a liar, instead he says, “I say she’s mistaken in her mind”. (Lee 167) He is a gentleman and an innocent man who doesn 't mean any harm. Also, while explaining about Tom’s death, ‘They shot him,’ said Atticus. ‘He was running. It was during their exercise period. They said he just broke into a blind raving charge at the fence and started climbing over. Right in front of them...”(Lee

Boo Radley is a representation of the mockingbird because of his innocence and acts of kindness. While Miss Maudie's house was burning down, Boo Radley secretly wrapped a blanket around Scout. " 'Boo Radley. You were so busy looking at the fire you didn't know it when he put the blanket around you' " (Lee 60). Scout realizes that Boo Radley is a kind man who wants to protect and take care of her. The residents of Maycomb County know very little about him, but still spread rumors and view

He is referred to as a mockingbird because he suffers he is stuck and constantly talked negatively by the town.It's the only form of contact he has with the outside world. Boo (Arthur Radley) is actually a very shy character who is often misjudged by society including scout and jem. As the story goes on, we find Scout beginning to realize Boo radelys true intentions and the situation when she tells Atticus that exposing Boo would be "sort of like shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn't it?” Throughout the novel, Scout, Jem, and Dill are curious about the "mysterious" Boo Radley because he never comes outside from his house or associates with anyone in the neighborhood.

Mr Radley was ashamed of his son’s behaviour when he got into the wrong crowd as a youngster and punished him by locking him up. There is a lot of gossip around Maycomb about Boo and people blame him for any bad things that happen in the neighbourhood, ‘Any stealthy crimes committed in Maycomb were his work.’ Jem turns him into a monster, ‘his hands were blood-stained’, and ‘his eyes popped’. At the end of the novel however, we find that Boo is misunderstood, and gossip of the town’s folk has made him up to be a ‘malevolent phantom’. Scout tells us he is timid, he had, ‘the voice of a child afraid of the dark’.

In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Boo Radley is known among the people of Maycomb as a violent, mysterious phantom of a man; someone who started a gang, someone who stabbed his own father, and someone who was rumoured to eat live animals. Every crime was his doing, and to make all of this even more ominous, he only comes out of his droopy, sick, house at night to peer into people’s windows. As the children have never seen him, he is not viewed as a human being, but as some sort of monster. The children’s fear is reasonable as he has only been described as villainous.

Scout, Jem, and Dill work many summers to try to get Boo to come out of the Radley house for the first time in many years. Jem had been told many things about Boo in his short years in Maycomb, and he tells his sister Scout about the ‘monster’, saying, “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined 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 wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time” (chap. 1). Jem’s ideas about Boo are very biased toward rumors that can be heard around Maycomb. This shows how Maycomb’s people often judge before they know, seeing as no one has seen Boo Radley in over twenty years and people are prejudiced to believing the unknown is always bad. Prejudice and rumors can often not be trusted and Boo Radley is no exception. After Miss Maudie’s house catches fire and half the town rushes outside to watch it burn, Atticus tells Scout, “someday you should thank him for covering you up” then Scout asks, “Thank Who?” And gets a response from Atticus, “Boo Radley. You were too busy looking at the fire, you didn’t even notice when he put the blanket around you” (chap. 8). Boo Radley is not really a bad person, he

However, Tom Robinson is not the only mockingbird in the story. Boo Radley is another harmless creature who falls victim of cruelty. He is unjustly regarded as an evil person and used as the scapegoat for all the bad happenings around town. Women are afraid of him and so are children. When the sheriff decided that he would not arrest Boo Radley for killing Bob Ewell and that would present his death as an accident, Atticus asked Scout if she understood the meaning of this decision. Scout replied that she did. Her exact words were: "Well, it'd be sort of like shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn't it?" (282). Boo here is also compared to the gentle bird and again it would be a 'sin' to punish him. The symbol of the mockingbird can be applied to Boo Radley from another point of view as well. The mockingbird has no song of its own. It just imitates other birds. Therefore it makes itself present and is seen through other birds. In the same way, Boo Radley is seen through the eyes of other people. He does not have a character of his own. What the reader knows about him is what other people say. He is believed to " dine on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, his hands were

did not allow anyone to visit him or have the slightest contact with him. Eventually Boo's mental state triggers him to stabbed his father with a pair of scissors. Boo's fathers causes Boo to suffer innocently by stealing his childhood experiences away from him. This indicates that Boo is a mockingbird because he did very little to deserve this torment and isolation that his father inflicted upon him. Then, Jem and Scout from the beginning of the story never fully understood Boo's past life at all, yet they judged him on things they hear about. They suspect he was basically an evil monster that never comes out of his house. Scout starts the stereotyping by creating a nickname “Boo” for the innocent Arthur Radley. This nickname robs Arthur of his true name and identity, causing him to suffer. Furthermore, Jem and Scout constantly pester Boo in an attempt to discover his actual identity. They tell their best friend Dill that Boo is like a zombie. Jem describes Boo as being: “About six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cat he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained-if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he and he drooled most of the time” (Lee 13). The stereotypical image created by Jem completely robs Boo

Tom Robinson is a mockingbird because he was innocent of the crime that Mayella said he committed. During Tom Robinson's testimony he said, “ …. I felt right sorry for her, she seemed to try more than the rest of em- …” (page 197) This showed us Tom's character , he simply wanted to help her out of the own kindness of his heart. The local journalist reflected on Tom’s death written in his editorial by referring to it as the, “Senseless slaughter of songbirds...Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson ,but in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case. Tom

Scout, Jem, and Dill then discuss why Boo stays hidden. This is when Dill explained, “Maybe he doesn’t have anywhere to runoff too” (Lee 192). Dill suggest that Boo might have been through a l;ot and doesn’t have any loved ones to go to. We then realize Boo symbolizes innocence being destroyed because when he was little he has had no one to care for or love. One of the most memorable scenes is when Atticus and Heck Tate realize that Boo killed Bob Ewell. They discuss whether or not to expose him but Scout comes in and states “well, it’d be sort of like shootin a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?” (Lee 370). Scout believes that by exposing Boo to the public after all these years of him locked in his house, it would be like killing an innocent mockingbird. At this moment Boo Radley officially becomes a mockingbird.

“Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird,” Atticus Finch cautioned, which symbolizes Tom Robinson’s innocence and misinterpretation in To Kill a Mockingbird. Tom Robinson is a misunderstood character in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Some people see Tom Robinson as a liar who raped Mayella Ewell, while others see Tom Robinson as an innocent hard-working man. The people who see him as a guilty man believe the word of the witnesses that try and prove his guilt throughout the entire court case.

Boo! Boo! Such a word is often used to scare siblings, or hung up on houses around Halloween. However, in the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Boo is something regularly discussed, but not as a word. No, Boo is a nickname for the furtive Arthur Radley, the neighbor to the Finches. Throughout the novel, Boo is regarded as something of a Boogieman, a story used by Jem to frighten Scout and Dill.

It is a Sin to Kill Tom Robinson"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 make music for us to enjoy. That's why it is a sin to kill a mockingbird." (90) This quote is stated by Miss Maudie, underscoring the point of view of Atticus, who is a lawyer given an uphill job of substantiating a black man's innocence who is accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewells. To Kill a Mockingbird is an inspirational and thought provoking story that is the first and the only novel written by Harper Lee. The basic time setting of the novel is in the 1930s during the Great Depression, in the fictional town of Maycomb Alabama, where prejudice

Tom Robinson is an example of a mockingbird in To Kill a Mockingbird. Tom Robinson was a black man in 1930, therefor it was unfair from the start. Tom Robinson was nothing but a kind man, he never harmed anyone. Tom saw Mayella struggling around the house. Her father was a drunk that left her to fend for her and the children. She did her best but once in awhile when Tom was passing by the EWell house Mayella would invite him inside the fence to see if her would help her with little tasks. One day she invited him inside to fix a door. When he got inside to fix the door her found there was nothing wrong with the door. That is when Mayella kissed Tom, however Tom is wrongfully charged with rape.