How does Harper Lee use the mockingbird as a symbol throughout the novel?
Initially, the title To Kill A Mockingbird is merely a cryptic phrase. Ultimately the reader sees it as part of an important piece of symbolism — that is, part of a process by which an object represents something more important than itself, is associated with a wider significance and eventually takes on the power of profound imaginative suggestion. In many respects, the title is a key to some of the themes of the novel. In this way the mockingbird image is the device by which the two plot elements are unified. The first part of the novel is concerned with the Boo Radley mystery, and the second part is concerned with the Tom Robinson trial. Both of these characters can be viewed as a mockingbird. Both are harmless members of society and both are innocent people, yet, in some way, both are persecuted by society.
The symbol of the mockingbird, with its associated ideas, appears at several points in the novel. It first occurs in Chapter 10, where Atticus says the children may shoot all the bluejays they want “but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird” (p.96). This is the first time Scout has ever heard him say it is a sin to do something. The full significance of this remark is explained to Scout by Miss Maudie Atkinson. Mockingbirds do not “eat other people's gardens”or “nest in corncribs”; “they do nothing but sing their hearts out for us, making music for us to enjoy” (p.96). They represent a type of gentle, harmless creature, innocent and beautiful. Thus, to kill a mocking bird would be wicked and spiteful, a senseless and pointless act of destruction.
Destruction is wholly alien to Atticus's way of life. He is an unusually skilful marksman but he regards this gift as one that gives him "an unfair advantage over most living things", and he has therefore given up hunting. But there are occasions when he has to shoot and the appearance in the street of the mad dog is one of them. As Atticus prepares to shoot the dog everything goes quiet. “The trees were still, the mockingbirds were silent, the carpenters at Miss Maudie's house had vanished” (p.100). The dog is killed in front of the Radley Place. The significance of this becomes apparent later in the novel.
It is possible, therefore, to view the mockingbird as symbolising the Southern way of life a culture that emphasises good manners, family background, and a relaxed, unhurried pace of living — symbolic of a way of life that is beautiful, gentle and fragile. Unfortunately, another aspect of this way of life is racial segregation, a system that had been tolerated for decades by many Southerners who knew in their hearts that it was morally wrong.