Mockingbird Motif

To Kill a Mockingbird has enhanced my understanding of motif by showing me how there can be one major motif throughout the book and how there doesn't have to be multiple motif's throughout the book. The "mockingbird motif" is the mention of the mockingbird throughout the book. It started with Atticus saying "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" from that point on the "mockingbird" was used to describe how innocent people shouldn't be harmed. It shows how some people may seem bad but really they're just misunderstood which causes prejudice against people. This motif adds a symbolic level of meaning to how people judge and make assumptions of other people.

The mockingbird is used as a symbol of the harmless and how if they've done nothing wrong, then they should never be harmed. Throughout the book, the mockingbird helps develop the themes like prejudice, growing up, and innocency. The mockingbird shows how peoples prejudice can get any the way of the truth and whats really the right thing to do. It shows how innocent people are harmed even though they've done nothing wrong. The mockingbird may describe who some people really are and how people might not even realize it and may even harm them without realizing the trouble it could cause.