“The Mockingbirds don't do one thing but create music for our enjoyment. They don't eat people's gardens, they don't nest in corn troughs, they do nothing but sing at the top of their lungs for us. That is why it is a sin to kill a mockingbird” (119). In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, the first mention of a mockingbird appears when Jem and Scout are learning how to use their new air rifles. Atticus doesn't want to teach them to shoot air rifles, but he gives them a rule to follow: don't kill thrushes. Later Miss Maudie tells Scout, the main character, how it is a shame to kill a mockingbird because they are innocent and do nothing to anyone. Throughout this story, there are several characters who are portrayed as thrush figures. Jem, Scout, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley all fit the symbol of the mockingbird because they are all innocent at first but are later changed dramatically by the brokenness of the world. The first mockingbird figures are the children Finch, Jem and Scout. Jem is a mockingbird figure because he seems innocent at first and then his innocence is mocked. In this book, Jem starts out as an innocent little boy who has done nothing wrong. He doesn't realize how broken the world is until he's older and more mature. The perfect example of this is in the courtroom when Jem begins to understand the idea that the world is not perfect and realizes that Tom Robinson is innocent. Jem doesn't understand why Tom is being wrongly convicted, so when the verdict arrives Jem is completely conflicted and Scout tells the reader what it was like: "'Guilty...guilty...guilty...guilty...' Jem peered: the his hands were white from gripping the balcony railing, and his shoulders shook as if every "guil... middle of paper... children live and become a hero. Scout summarizes these actions at the end of the book: "Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a couple of good -fortunes the money and our lives. We never put back into the tree what we took from it: we didn't give it anything, and that made me sad" (373). Boo Radley did all these things but Scout was sad that she never gave anything in return. Now he realizes that Boo isn't a bad guy after all. All of this is Boo's way of making music, just like a mockingbird does. The people of Maycomb see him as a bad and scary person, but in reality he is not a bad guy at all. About the way Boo Radley makes music and the fact that he is an innocent man, he is the perfect image of the mockingbird in this book..