To Kill a Mockingbird Metaphor Analysis

           In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, there is a metaphor of killing a mockingbird that connects to two characters in the book: Tom Robinson and Boo Radley.  The metaphor is first introduced when Jem and Scout get their first air rifles and Atticus says to them, "'I'd rather you shoot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but it's a sin to kill a mockingbird". Scout, confused, goes to ask her friend Miss Maudie about it: "'Your father's right," she said. 'Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird'". I think two possible characters in the story can represent the mockingbird. First, I think Boo Radley could represent the mockingbird because even though the entire town fears Boo, all he wants to do is "sing sweetly". He wants seclusion and just to go about his life. At the end of the book, after Boo saves the children from Bob Ewell by killing Mr. Ewell, and Atticus expresses how he thinks the case should go to trial. But then the sheriff, Heck Tate, says that if it did, all the woman of Maycomb would bring cakes to him and he would almost become a celebrity; thus killing the mockingbird because all Boo wants is seclusion and to be, really. And I believe Tom Robinson is also the mockingbird because all Tom wants is peace and to get by with his children and his wife, Helen. The mockingbird represents innocence, and innocence is killed by racism when Tom gets convicted of raping Mayella Ewell, a crime he did not commit. This is why I believe both Boo Radley and Tom Robinson represent the mockingbird in To Kill a Mockingbird.
          Firstly, I believe that Boo Radley is a mockingbird. Boo Radley is some kind of legend in Maycomb; he is basically the bogeyman of the town. One of the biggest rumors in Maycomb county is that Boo Radley stabbed his father in the leg with a pair of scissors, and the public response from the townspeople is overwhelming. Many more stories of Boo Radley surface, many sounding outrageous and false, and the children become fascinated with Boo Radley. Atticus knows Boo is an innocent soul who just wants to "sing" freely, because he constantly reprimands the children whenever they want to stake out Boo or reenact his so-called assault on his father, Nathan Radley. Scout, in the end of book, realizes that Boo is just yearning to be left alone from the scared yet prying eyes of Maycomb. "'Yes sir, I understand,' I reassured him. 'Mr. Tate was right.' Atticus disengaged himself and looked at me. 'What do you mean?' 'Well it'd be sort of like shootin' a mockingbird, won't it?'". Mr. Tate doesn't want Boo to go to trial because he would then become a celebrity, killing the mockingbird. It would be a sin to deprive Boo of this simple right.
         I also believe that Tom Robinson is a mockingbird because all he wants to do is be free and live as he pleases, happily, with his wife and children. Yet the mockingbird is wounded when he is falsely charged with the rape of Mayella Ewell and racism is the final blow that kills the mockingbird. The town of Maycomb is the South in the 1940's; a place plagued with racism at the time. In the town, the white people live in luscious ample houses and other whites may live on lush farms. While the white people live these extravagant lives, the black people are pushed into plebeian cabins in the far stretches of the forests. There, they are often persecuted by whites anyways, such as the Ewells. Yet all Tom is yearning to do is to "sing" as he would wish, yet racism is an iron fist that pulverizes Tom, killing the innocent mockingbird. "'The state has not produced one iota of evidence that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place. It has relied instead upon the testimony of two witnesses whose evidence has not only been called into serious question on cross-examination, but has flatly been contradicted by the defendant". Before all of the courtroom drama took place, Tom Robinson was just another man wanting so badly to sing as he would like, yet killed by the cruel force of racism. That is a terrible sin, as Atticus said.
        In conclusion the metaphor of the mockingbird and it's death is a very powerful metaphor in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I believe that there are two possible characters that represent the mockingbird, and those characters are the terrorist of the town, Boo Radley, and a simple black man who ends up a situation that was very unfortunate: Tom Robinson. Both characters just want to "sing" freely, yet forces such as racism and gossip chain these birds and choke their throats. Tom Robinson is eventually killed, metaphorically and in actuality, yet Boo Radley's need to sing is recognized and respected by Scout and her father. I found it interesting how Boo, the most feared man in town, lived and got what he wanted, yet Tom Robinson, a hardworking black man faced his untimely death. Either way I still believe that Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are innocent mockingbirds in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.