As children, we all remember dancing around our neighborhood, totally carefree, no worries at all in our little world. Of course, we also remember the moment that changes. The time we put that innocence away and become defiant, willing to do anything for what we believe in. Innocence can be conveyed through many symbols, even a tiny bird called a mockingbird. To kill, harm one minuscule hair on this animal’s head, is harming something that has never done anything awful in its life. In contrast, defiance is conveyed through a headstrong bird named a mockingjay. A mockingjay should have never existed, and through its living it shows how you can be whoever you want to be, no matter the obstacles stacked upon you. Even though these birds themselves do not make an appearance in To Kill a Mockingbird, the symbolism of what these animals stand for are unmistakably shown in the novel.
When mockingbirds are born, their innocence begins. No knowledge of the world, how it works, and the horrors tucked into it. As life continues for them, though, loss of that innocence begins to set in. Survival, attempting to find food, and quarrels between other mockingbirds has the world look like a terrible place to live in. This is exactly what happens to Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. When she was born, nothing really troubled her, no ideas harmed her. Once Atticus, a lawyer and her father, takes his most risk-filled court case ever, innocence is suddenly stolen from her. Feedback from her neighbors and school peers filled her life with adult topics. Scout wasn’t eligible to be a true child anymore, which is exactly what mockingbirds have in their fate.
Fuse together a mockingbird, a sign of innocence, and a jabberjay, a sign of defiance and being able to trick your enemies, and what is created? A little bird named a mockingjay. Government in The Hunger Games, accurately called the Capitol, never meant for these animals to exist. Jabberjays, these creatures’ fathers, should have died off in the woods. Yet they didn’t, and through them mockingjays were born. Since they defied the odds, they became a symbol of rebellion and defiance. As long as mockingjays existed, there would be hope. A mockingjay is shown through Atticus Finch, Scout’s father. He probably shouldn’t have been willing to conquer on Tom Robinson’s court case, yet he did. He was prepared to define the government and rebel against what society was in the 1960’s. As long as Atticus lived, the symbolism of the mockingjay would still live on.
Even though they don’t even know it themselves, symbolism of animals shines through in the two primary characters of To Kill A Mockingbird. Scout and Atticus equally have the symbolism in their personalities. Scout, like a mockingbird, had an innocent aura about herself, and an ignorance of the terrors of the world around her. Adults living in the racist time period of 1960 were usually awfully mean-spirited people, who didn’t accept people unlike them. Yet sometimes, a mockingjay rises out of these types of people, and Atticus was that mockingjay. To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, is a truly thought-provoking novel that shows how the symbolism of unique types of animals shines through in the primary characters of her novel.
