Harper Lee satirises by juxtaposing the black and white communitie’s reactions to the courtcase. You can see the extreme contrast between the two societies because the black society shows gratitude to Atticus and they are mournful over the case whereas the white community are busy gossiping and making accusations. “Did Atticus put us up there as a sort of-? Wasn’t it right close up there with all those-? Did Scout understand all the -? Didn’t it make us mad to see our daddy beat?” This quote is Scout talking about how Miss Stephanie was curious of why Scout, Jem and Dill were on the balcony. We can see from the hyphens that are used that she can’t even finish her sentences because she has so much to ask and enquire about. Another quote that supports this is “Miss Stephanie’s nose was quivering in curiousity” the word quivering connotes that she is so excited about the gossip that she is getting physical reactions to it. If this is compared to the black community where they brought food, which is all they had to give, to Atticus as thanks for his efforts. Ththhis shows how Harper Lee is ridiculing the immaturity of the white people.
The Mockingbird symbol is a recurring motif in the book and it represents someone who has had their innocence taken away from them and has been corrupted by the evil of the world.
Jem is a very clear example of a mockingbird as he shows one of the largest character change in the novel. This shows how his innocence is slowly fading as he gets exposed to the corruption of Maycomb county. In the earlier parts of the novel Scout and Jem’s interaction with Boo Radley becomes a main part of the story. In this part of the book Jem and Scout manage to find a way to communicate with Boo through a tree outside the radley place. However before long Nathan Radley seals up the hole in the tree with cement and claims that it is dying. “Don’t you cry, now, Scout… don’t cry now, don’t you worry” This quote shows how upset Jem is as he is trying to comfort Scout who is not very affected to deal with his own sadness. As a result of this event Jem starts crying at the fact that he knows the only way he was going to be able to speak to Boo is destroyed. I think he also starts to put together that it is not his choice to be locked up inside his home.
Another scenario of when Jem looses his innocence is when the courthouse scene comes to a close. Jem believes that it is clear Tom Robinson is innocent and thinks it’s certain they will win the case. As we know Tom is found guilty because of the racism in the society and it becomes apparent to Jem that this is the reason he is guilty. Although Jem has been exposed to segregation, slavery and false superiority this hits him very hard as he is a trustworthy, kind man who looses his life to racism. This shows us how Jem is a Mockingbird because he is quite naive and innocent at the start of the novel but he becomes exposed to more and more bad things that begin to take away his childhood.
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