MOTIF

Reading the book to kill a mocking bird helped me to understand the meaning of motif, because the book had a lot of examples and references to the motif of the mockingbird. In the book Atticus tells his kids that it's a sin to kill a mocking bird, because mocking birds do nothing but share their sweet melodies, never hurting to annoying any one. Through out the book the motif of the mocking bird is displayed through characters, rather than just the obvious bird. For example, Boo Radley, and Tom Robinson were mocking bird characters. They both never hurt any one or did anything to upset anyone else, all they ever did was did what they could to help other people. And so "it is a sin to kill the mocking bird" meaning that it was a sin to lock up Tom Robinson after all he did was help Mayella Ewell with what ever he could. Or that it was wrong to even consider taking Boo to court when he had never hurt a soul, only saved two innocent childrens lives from a bad man.
The Motif of the mocking bird helps to elaborate or built backround for the other themes in the book. The theme of bravery sits hand in hand with the motif, Boo came out of his house after 20+ years of being inside never showing his face, and keeping to himself, so that he could do what he could to save the lives of Atticus's children. Another theme that the motif helped to inspire was the theme of justice vs. injustice. Being when Tom was taken to court and tried for raping Mayella, the people that were in the court all knew that there was no real evidence that Mayella had been raped. The only thing that was there was a black man's word against a white mans, and Tom was convicted guilty and taken away to prison. Tom was the mocking bird, everyone knew that he had done nothing wrong all the evidence proved that he was innocent, and the people killed the mocking bird by stating he was guilty.