Mockingbird Motif

Up until this year, I never really understood what motif meant. I learned what motif is in Honors English this year. Motif is a reoccurring subject with a symbolic meaning. However just knowing somethings definition doesn't necessarily mean you understand what it is. Reading "To Kill a Mockingbird" was a tremendous help for me.

Within the novel one motif occurs much more than others, it is the fact that it's a "sin to kill a mockingbird". This is another way of saying that the destruction of innocence is wrong. Many characters from the text are symbolized by mockingbirds; they are innocent characters who were harmed. Tom Robinson is a perfect example, and in fact a newspaper compares his death to "the slaughter of songbirds". Could this be a coincidence? During his trial Tom is wrongly convicted and sentenced to death, yet he was an innocent man. This is a form of the destruction of innocence.

This motif mainly assists the theme of good vs. evil.