Mockingbird #5

Words of Wisdom:

"Your father’s right," she said. "Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” 

Atticus first introduces it, but Miss Maudie explains the biggest line of the book, how it is wrong to kill a mockingbird because it is innocent.  This line represents not only the biggest conflict of the book, but also the biggest lesson to be taught.  It foreshadows several important events in the book, from Tom Robinson’s conviction and death to Boo Radley’s appearance.  To kill a mockingbird is to kill innocence, to wrongly convict a man, to take away a man’s peace and expose him to the horrors of the world.  The lesson Jeb and Scout are to learn is that there is no reason to hurt an innocent man, woman, or animal. Jem is first to learn this, as he stops Scout from killing a roly-poly because it wasn’t hurting anything.  But this lesson is more than protecting animals; it’s the foundation of all the other lessons of the book.  Standing up for what’s right, being able to see other’s opinions, recognizing evil people, and forgiveness to those who wrong you all branch from just being a moral person and not seeking to wrong those who have not done anything.  This quote symbolizes the basis of human morality and empathy.