In 1960, Harper Lee published the only novel she would ever write. It was a critical success and a bestseller, though Lee did not expect it to ever do well, saying:
“I never expected any sort of success with Mockingbird. I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers but, at the same time, I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement.” (Newquist, 1964).
Nonetheless, the story lives on as a classic example of Southern-Gothic era literature, with clear character archetypes and a (largely) straight-forward definition of the good and bad in Maycomb, though one element in the story is continually debated: Who is the Mockingbird?
The easiest answer to the question would be simple: Tom Robinson, the African American who was clearly innocent as proven by Atticus. But are there other Mockingbirds in the books besides him? This is debatable, but nothing has been confirmed or denied by Lee herself. This opens up a wide range of possibilities for our selection process with a relatively small amount of text to search through.
To begin, we should probably know what the term Mockingbird in the book exactly references. We know that Atticus explains to Jem and Scout that they "can shoot all the bluejays [they] want," but tells them to remember that "it's a sin to kill a mockingbird". (Page 90) Scout is confused by this, and goes to Miss Maudie as she always does. Miss Maudie then is famously quoted, saying:
"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" (90).
This gives us a pretty clear picture of what the mockingbird in the book would be like. Though it describes a bird, these iconic two sentences are littered with metaphor. We now know that whoever this Mockingbird is is innocent and incapable of doing wrong, vulnerable to abuse, and someone who is good all around. Tom Robinson still fits this description very well, as he has done nothing wrong but help Mayella Ewell, only to be taken advantage of by her and put on trial as a result, later being killed.
Another Mockingbird in the book could very well be Scout herself. Even the subtlety of the last name "Finch" has a deeper undertone to it, that being with the Finch being a smaller bird, and the metaphor of the Finches being prey to the racism in Maycomb county. Her innocence proves to a recurring theme, and while she is aware of the injustice in her community, she is blind to the underlying reasons of why all that happens in the book does. This unintentional obliviousness makes her a great example of a mockingbird, though there are others still.
A third example of a Mockingbird could be Boo Radley, and he is probably one of the best possible of them. As he silently watches the Finch children grow, he gives them gifts in tree outside the Radley house, only for it to be later filled in with concrete. Because he never shows his face in the town, he is assumed insane, and rumors surface of things he may or may not have done. Of course, all of these are assumed false by the reader, as his invisible kindness to the Finches deems them impossible. And, after killing Bob Ewell and saving their lives, Atticus and Officer Tate deem it pointless to let the town know the truth as Boo has already been harmed enough.
Now, of course there are other possible mockingbirds in the book, some of which could be Jem, Dill, and Mr. Raymond, though really, the mockingbird could actually be multiple people. So, who is the mockingbird? Anyone really, as long as reasoning can defend it.
