To Kill a Mocking Bird
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- Category: English
- Date Submitted: 09/29/2010 11:02 AM
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‘To Kill a Mockingbird’: Discuss the significance of the title
At first, it seems like the title ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ does not make much sense or have any relation to the story. Somehow, this draws the reader into reading the story, trying to find out more and understand its significance. Even though the title has very little to do with the actual book but it turns out to be very symbolic. The mockingbird has a very deep and powerful meaning in the novel.
In Chapter 10, the theme of ‘it's a sin to kill a mockingbird’ begins to emerge and the title is mentioned for the first time, when Atticus gives Jem and Scout air rifles as Christmas presents. He tells them, "I'd rather you shoot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." Mockingbirds are harmless, whereas blue jays are aggressive and loud, making them the opposite of mockingbirds. Miss Maudie also explains what Atticus means in more detail by saying, ‘Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to. . . . . That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird’. The author uses the mockingbird as a symbol of innocence. Thus, to kill a mockingbird is to destroy innocence.
As the story continues, the title ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ turns into a metaphor for the wrong of abusing innocent people, which compares the mockingbird to Tom Robinson, a black man. He is accused of raping a white young woman. Tom Robinson is an innocent man accused for a crime that he didn't commit. All he did was what Mayella Ewell, a white woman asked him to do; to help her. He never harmed he, he helped her because he felt sorry for her, for that she was brought up savagely in a brutal environment with a father who’s not at all intellectual and hatred surrounding her. 'Yes suh. I felt right sorry for her, she seemed to try more'n the rest of 'em-', he felt sorry for Mayella who was his accuser, while in fact Tom...
At first, it seems like the title ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ does not make much sense or have any relation to the story. Somehow, this draws the reader into reading the story, trying to find out more and understand its significance. Even though the title has very little to do with the actual book but it turns out to be very symbolic. The mockingbird has a very deep and powerful meaning in the novel.
In Chapter 10, the theme of ‘it's a sin to kill a mockingbird’ begins to emerge and the title is mentioned for the first time, when Atticus gives Jem and Scout air rifles as Christmas presents. He tells them, "I'd rather you shoot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." Mockingbirds are harmless, whereas blue jays are aggressive and loud, making them the opposite of mockingbirds. Miss Maudie also explains what Atticus means in more detail by saying, ‘Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to. . . . . That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird’. The author uses the mockingbird as a symbol of innocence. Thus, to kill a mockingbird is to destroy innocence.
As the story continues, the title ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ turns into a metaphor for the wrong of abusing innocent people, which compares the mockingbird to Tom Robinson, a black man. He is accused of raping a white young woman. Tom Robinson is an innocent man accused for a crime that he didn't commit. All he did was what Mayella Ewell, a white woman asked him to do; to help her. He never harmed he, he helped her because he felt sorry for her, for that she was brought up savagely in a brutal environment with a father who’s not at all intellectual and hatred surrounding her. 'Yes suh. I felt right sorry for her, she seemed to try more'n the rest of 'em-', he felt sorry for Mayella who was his accuser, while in fact Tom...