When Bob Ewell states “I seen that black nigger yonder ruttin’ on my Mayella” (p 173) in To Kill A Mockingbird, his statement throws the courtroom into an uproar due to the expressed sexuality. Judge  Taylor has to hammer his gavel for a full five minutes to regain order and Reverend Sykes suggests that Jem take Scout home as “this ain’t fit for Miss Jean Louise.”

That this is a key point in the novel is clear by the fact that no fewer than sixteen searches directed for this quote have arrived at my website in the last month alone.  Amazingly, To Kill A Mockingbird remains one of the most taught novels in high school after almost fifty years in print. And no wonder, it is a great novel containing social change, metaphor and powerful images of growing up in a time where innocence was still possible.

One of the aspects that is useful to look at is the image of the mockingbird. The title of the novel comes from the admonition by Atticus to Scout and Jem when Jem receives an air rifle for Christmas that he should not shoot at mockingbirds. “Shoot at all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (p 90) Immediately after that, Miss Maudie explains why it’s a sin. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing, but make music for us to enjoy.” Throughout the novel, various characters are symbolized by the mockingbird because they are not harming anyone, yet they are treated badly.

Certainly Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are the most obvious mockingbirds in the novel, but it can also be shown that Mayella is also a symbolic mockinbird. Mayella does try to make life better for those around her. She plants geraniums in front of the Ewell home (p. 170). Additionally, Scout’s narrative makes reference to how Mayella looked as if she bathed regularly, unlike the rest of  her clan (p 179.) Scout’s narrative emphasizes Mayella’s pathetic situation when she describes her  as “the loneliest person in the world.” (p 193) Scout even compares her to Boo Radley, another mockingbird.

Other characters who might be described as mockingbirds include Dolphus Raymond who only wanted to live with the woman he loved, but had to feign drunkeness in order to keep the town off his back. Of course the key to the novel is to recognize that the way America treated its black citizens after freeing them from slavery was like killing mockingbirds; after they contributed their blood, sweat and toil to building a country out of the wilderness, they were kept from enjoying the wealth that they created.

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