To Kill A Mockingbird

Most people recall reading the actual novel ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ or seeing the movie in middle school except for me. I was never assigned to read the novel although I can recognize the title. Every time someone would mention ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, I’d always hear good things about it. People would always say it’s a good book and that i should read it but I never got around to it. So this is my first time ever seeing the story line/plot for this novel turned into a movie. ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ from what I have seen is about the father of two children named Scout and Jem who is a lawyer and ends up on the defendant’s  side of a black man accused of raping a white woman. After seeing the jury scene with the white women strongly accusing the black man of rape and beating her, I came to the conclusion that the mockingbird is most likely a symbol of 'black men' in times of slavery, racism, and discrimination.

After seeing that one court decision scene I then felt my conclusion was correct considering all the jury members accused the black man of being guilty. This means that the black man will most likely be in jail until he dies or will receive the death penalty; which correlates with the title of the novel. I then remembered that a lot of the times the back cover to all books give a slight preview to what the novel will be about. When looking at the back cover I came across a quote that states, “Shoot all the Bluejays you want if you can hit'em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” From there I compared this movie to ‘The Hunger Games’ series and how the second book it titled ‘mockingjay’ which is relatively the same thing as a ‘mockingbird’. In ‘The Hunger Games’, the main character Katniss Everdeen has volunteered to be in a fight to the death ‘game’ for the world to see. I’ve never read the book but from watching the movie I know that she’s a young, innocent, kind-hearted, caring, loving, and peaceful individual in a horrible situation. This a lot like the black man in ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’; from what I see in the movie he’s a nice, caring, thoughtful, helpful, and generous man being accused of rape (ultimately accused of being guilty by an all white jury).

The mockingbird a lot like the dove, a symbol of peace, love, and innocence - and to kill one that is innocent is a sin. In a way, especially in the time period in the movie mostly all black people are ‘mockingbirds’. Peaceful people working hard to stay alive considering they have targets on their backs the day they’re born. One wrong move could cost them their lives. And it’s so easy to accuse a black person of a crime back then since ‘they couldn’t be trusted’, and ‘they were out to take the white man’s women’. In the movie the white women who has been ‘raped’ seems like she’s guilty of more so taking advantage of the black man she’s accusing and is scared of getting in trouble with her father and decides to blame him and send him to jail instead of seeming like a monster for liking a man who isn’t white. Blaming the innocent and killing the innocent may be easy but it’s a sin to do so.