To Kill A Mockingbird
...mall town of Maycomb as an outsider who never sets foot outside his own house. Boo becomes part of Jem, Scout, and Dill’s imagination as they talk about him and his mysterious ways. To the children he seems creepy at first, although he doesn’t harm anyone; he leaves little gifts for Jem and Scout, and covers Scout with a blanket during the fire, and eventually ends up saving the children from Bob Ewell. Despite the pureness of Boo’s heart, he has been damaged by his abusive father. There is a connection between songbirds and innocents that is made many times in the novel for example in Chapter 25, Mr. Underwood likens Tom Robinson's death to "the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children"; and in Chapter 30, Scout tells Atticus that hurting Boo Radley would be "sort of like shootin' a mockingbird." Boo is a smart boy who is emotionally damaged by his cruel father, and at this point in the novel it can be seen that the threat of evil against ones innocence and goodness of their heart is what made Boo become one of the novel's "mockingbirds"; a good person who is injured by the evil of mankind. Tom Robinson is another one of the novel’s “mockingbirds", who is an important symbol of innocence that gets destroyed by evil. He was a hard working black man who was accused of rape, and with no chance of getting a fair trial in the white dominated town of Maycomb. It was the town’s prejudice that caused everyone to immediately assume that he was guilty of rape. The townspeople believed the white drunk Bob Ewell, who made up this excuse of rape to cover up for beating his daughter. Atticus Finch decided to take Tom’s case when he learned from Scout that people become mockingbirds, like Boo Radley. Atticus believed in Tom’s innocence, and it was the evil from all the people in the town that destroyed any innocence or goodness that was left in him. He was a good man who was judged by the color of his skin, and wasn’t given a fair trial; he was a mockingbird that was tested right up to his death. Mockingbirds ...