A few additional comments on the title and meaning: Lee uses the mockingbird as a symbol of innocence, joy, and freedom, borrowing from other American writers, such as Walt Whitman in “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking,” who use the bird in this way. Although it is a sin to kill a mockingbird, Atticus says it’s permissible to shoot blue jays, thus making blue jays the opposite of mockingbirds. Loud, territorial, and very aggressive, blue jays can be understood as the bullies of the bird world. The finch, the family name of Atticus, means a songbird like the mockingbird, and he pits himself against the evil in the town.
As bullies, however, blue jays embody the meanness of racism and people such as Bob Ewell (his last name sounds similar to “evil”) . While Atticus is uncomfortable with covering the fact that Boo killed Ewell in defending his children against Ewell’s attack, he is willing to overlook the details of the law to protect the mockingbird that is Boo and dismiss the dead blue jay that is Ewell. Atticus also “attacks” blue jays when he shoots the mad dog. The dog represents prejudice, and how, like a rabid dog, it spread its disease throughout the South. In shooting the dog Atticus kills a blue jay, and in so doing also kills racism and prejudice, trying to prevent it from spreading any further.
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