For this essay I chose the subject: Mockingbird metaphor. This means I am going to tell why it is a sin to kill a mocking bird, and I am going to tell why some persons in my life are mockingbirds. Another think I am going to discuss is why it is a sin to kill a mockingbird, and how this metaphor currently takes part in our society. Killing a mockingbird is a sin because the bird had done nothing wrong, it did not harm you nor did it harm anyone else. It would not be fair to kill it.
Shooting a bluejay is not a sin because bluejays eat people’s gardens and nest in the corncrib. It is like real life, if you do something wrong you need to pay for your sins. Although it is debatable if bluejays are bad, the just do what they need to do so they can survive. Maybe we are the ones who have to pay our sins, maybe we have built our houses in the territory of the birds. This shows you that you always have to look at something from all different sides. If we compare the metaphor to our current society we can compare it to justice system.
When you commit a crime or a felony, government or police gives you a fine or even some jail time. This means you are paying for your sins. It is a bit different than being killed like the bluejays but it is comparable. Although in some countries the death penalty still exist such as China, the United States of Amerika and India. In those cases you can compare the metaphors literally. Whether this is righteous or not is a whole other discussion I’m not going to start.
The mockingbird metaphor can also be interpreted in a personal way, like who your mockingbirds are and why. For example, my mockingbirds are my parents because the always care for me, no matter wat. And they will always love me. The only thing I have done in return is loving them back and occasionally giving them a present. Sometimes I get mad at my parents even though they care for me and even though they did nothing wrong. In that case my parents are like Tom Robinson in the book, they are not guilty but still accused of something.
Similar to the mockingbird’s song which is not appreciated, the voice of Robinson is ignored by most of the people from Maycoumb County. This refers to 1930 where white man where unable and unwilling to accommodate themselves to a broad ranges of cultures and they even looked down upon people from another culture or from another race. In the end of the book Atticus says: “…
you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption that all negroes lie, that all negroes are basically immoral beings.” This is telling that assumptions without a meaning prevent everyone from hearing the truth without any prejudices. Therefore, the mockingbird and Robinson’s voice are completely ignored in the whole book. “It could not possibly be worse Jack. The only thing we have got is a black man’s wor against the Ewells.
The jury could not possibly be expected to take Tom Robinson’s word against the Ewells.” This quite from Atticus says that no matter what Tom Robinson claims in the court, the jury probably chooses the white man’s side. Although the jury in the court has to make objective decisions, they make a definite bias against Tom Robinson (a black man). Robinson did nothing wrong, the only thing he did was chopping wood and providing help for Mayella, who is (according to scout) the loneliest person on the entire earth. However the mockingbird figure is accused wrongly of things he has never done nor thought about it. Even though there is enough amount of proof that Robinson is not guilty, it is all ignored, and consequentially Tom Robinson is imprisoned. Emphasizing this Atticus tells his son: “In our courts when it is a white man’s word against a black man’s word, the white man always wins.” This quote is improtant because it reveals the fragility of a mockingbird and he reflects the status of a black person during the race war.
Tom Robinson’s voice is not being taken seriously by white man, just like how mockingbird’s songs are hardly noticed by the majority of the hunters and children. Coming back on the people I think were my mockingbirds, I do not believe there is anyone walking around on this earth who has done nothing wrong, everyone has done something they should not have done ones or maybe more. It is the penalty you are given that makes you the mockingbird. If you are accused of something you did not do you are the mockingbird of that case.
But you are not a mockingbird for your whole life. Being a mockingbird is something temporarily. Let me use my mockingbirds as an example if I get mad at my parents for “not taking good care of me” my parents would be mockingbirds. But if I say that they’re always mockingbirds it would be more of an opinion then a fact.
