All of Boos teenage and beyond years he has stayed locked up inside his house and no one from Maycomb has seen him. There are rumours upon rumours about him: "Boo drove the scissors into his parents leg," (Lee 11), this being one, yet he hasn't talked to anyone outside of his house in years. Instead of getting absorbed into Maycombs crazy conflict and prejudice views he decides to stay inside: "its because he wants to stay inside" Jem said (Lee 227), him doing so causes him to become an outcast. In To Kill A Mockingbird there are very few people that can look past the rumours and think of Boo as a normal person, like Scout for example: "I took him by the hand, a hand surprisingly warm for its whiteness" (Lee 227). All Boo did was mind his own business and got punished and judged for it.
All of these characters are kind beings and as can be seen by Tom in the courthouse he ‘felt right sorry’ for Miss Mayella. Unfortunately, the idea that a black person could feel sorry for a white person refutes all of Maycomb’s social assumptions. Tom’s omission cannot be tolerated by Maycomb’s current social hierarchy as it suggests that someone is inferior to a black man, when in fact all that Tom is doing is expressing a natural emotion –
No one really ever saw Boo Radley and the people of the town made up many weird stories about him and the spooky house he lives in. It illustrates that when someone is different’ from us we will make up stories or blame them for things that are not their fault because we are afraid. Despite the kindnesses shown to the children by Boo, (Chapter 4 ‘Scout passes the Radley Place and sees some tinfoil sticking out of a knothole in one of the Radleys’ oak trees. Scout reaches into the knothole and discovers two pieces of chewing gum’ and in Chapter 7 ‘When they come home from school that day, they find another present hidden in the knothole: a ball of gray twine’) the children do not see Boo as a human being but as a person to be feared. The children’s father Atticus, tries to make the children more compassionate and tries to get them to see things from the other person’s point of view before judging them, (Atticus, Chapter 3: ‘You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view .
The Innocence of the Mockingbird The symbolism of the mockingbird has a strong impact on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. It is said throughout the novel that “it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (Lee,90). Mockingbird’s are some of the most gentle, and heartfelt birds, they do not “eat up people’s gardens, [and] don’t nest in corncribs” (Lee,90). Their innocence is proven by singing charming music for all of Maycomb, they are deeply adored and respected by Maycomb’s people. But they are not the only gentle and caring creatures in Maycomb, Atticus Finch, Boo Radley, and Tom Robinson are all agreeable representation of what is it to be a mockingbird.
Harper Lee’s theme can also be comprehended through the symbol of the mockingbird. When Atticus gifts his children with air soft guns he advises them that if they went shooting for birds he tells them, "shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" (96). Miss Maudie furthers Atticus’s explanation by saying, "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 sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" (96).
Separate bathrooms were not unusual. And of course, prejudice was not unusual. Atticus knows prejudice is a terrible thing and tries to sway the jury and audience away from prejudice, much like he does with his children through the lessons he teaches them. In this case, he makes the jury and audience feel the unnecessary guilt that Tom Robinson and all blacks feel as a result of prejudice. He does this in an attempt to soften the people of Maycomb and make them think in a non-racist way.
The Light in Maycomb In a town filled with poverty, racism and hate is a tiny bit of hope that lies on the shoulders of the honest Atticus finch. He is the defender of all that is good and pure in Maycomb. But with good there is always evil, and Mayella happens to fall in the evil category. She herself isn't necessary sinister, but the actions she commits only fuels the hate and prejudiced of the town which eventually condemns a man. In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, there are two very distinctly different groups, the group of good and then the group of evil.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, these oppressed and misunderstood are portrayed in the characters, Tom Robinson and Arthur Radley. Though the lives of the two differ greatly, they both share these common experiences. They, like the humble mockingbird, who only sings beautiful songs for us, expecting nothing in return, do nothing but try to live their lives as harmless but helpful people, and are destroyed by the ignorant people that belong
It also had its negative effects on Atticus, when he was called degrading names like ‘nigger lover’ and being treated badly by the townspeople for defending Tom. His children were also persecuted because of his courageous act. Boo Radley was another man in the town who suffered severely due to the demeanour of others who had superstitions and judgements made up about him causing children to harass him just because he didn't want to leave his house and lastly Dolphus Raymond who suffered emotionally just because he lived with a black and had mixed children. The racial and prejudice attitudes of the townspeople in Maycomb is the driving force behind nearly all the negative events that happen in the story which caused emotional and physical pain to many
Tom was a kind and honest black man wrongly accused and convicted of a crime he did not commit. His downfall was his kindness towards Mayella and her wellbeing; a characteristic of a mockingbird. Staying in tune with his embodiment of a mockingbird, when Mayella approached him, he did not physically push her away, but instead fled the scene as the harmless mockingbird would. The people of Maycomb adopted the mindset of the custom of killing a black man accused of raping a white woman, and “when it’s a white man’s word over the black man’s word, the white always wins.”. This lead the jury to declaring Tom guilty, despite there being no doubt of his innocence.