Yeah I just watched the movie (but I think my question belongs here)
What does “to kill a mockingbird” mean? I don’t mean the movie or book, I’m sure it has all sorts of meanings. What does the actual saying mean “to kill a mockingbird.”?
Scout towards the end says something along the lines of “I reckon its just like shooting a mockingbird?” I don’t get the meaning, nor the context.
Earlier, Atticus explained to Scout that it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird, because they don’t do any harm to anyone, unlike other birds, which can eat crops and be pests. Boo Radley is harmless, like a mockingbird, so he should be left alone, rather than being made into a hero for saving Jem and Scout. If the neighbors started paying a lot of attention to him, even out of gratitude, he’d only suffer.
As far as I know, the quote is from the book, not the other way around.
Atticus explains in the film, when the school boy with the syrup is over to dinner. His Dad gave him a gun and told him he’d rather he shot at cans in the yard, but reckoned sooner or later the urge to shoot birds would be too much to resist. He told him he could shoot all the bluejays he wanted but it was a sin to kill a mockingbird. They don’t eat crops or nest in corn cribs, they don’t do anything but provide song.
At the end of the film, Scout reckons revealing that Boo killed the attacker would be like killing a mockingbird, in a way.
You’re not the only one
Homer Simpson:
I remember reading this in high school and as far as I could determain, Lee made the phrase up. Much in the same way Joseph Heller made up the phrase “Catch-22”
Just as an incidental bit of trivia, I once read that when he completed the first draft of the novel, the phrase was ‘Catch-17’ or something like that. Each time he revised the manuscript, he increased the number by one, partly for fun and partly to keep track of how many drafts he’d completed. And ‘Catch-22’ happened to be the one that was deemed ready for publication.
It was originally going to be Catch-18, but Heller’s agent was afraid that it would be confused with Leon Uris’s “Mila 18”. So then they considered Catch-11, but then Oceans 11 came out, so then it became Catch-17, but they worried that people would confuse it with Stalag 17. So then Heller suggested Catch-14, but, as his publisher told him, “14 isn’t a funny number!”, and so it became Catch-22.
I wonder how you missed this if you just watched the movie.
Yup. Sounds like homework to me.
Nope, I musta napped through this part
Come on; I was tired…I’m middle aged man.
That’s kinda what I was thinking, it’s like asking where the title “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof” came from. Sounds all symbolic and stuff, but it’s explained quite clearly in the movie.
But hey, I’ve been distracted and missed big chunks of movies too.
I think Tom Robinson is also a figurative “mockingbird.”
Wonderful story, wonderful movie. One of my favorites. And to think no CGI or 3D. My my.
But they’re always pointing and laughing at me! Stupid mockingbirds.
I agree. At least as much as Boo.
I was attacked by a mama mockingbird on my way in to work one morning merely for walking close to her nest which was in one of the junipers lining the main drive. So I know mockingbirds aren’t saints. But they do sing nice.
Harper Lee would have bombed out if it had been “To Kill A Bluejay.” Or a starling.
What if that mockingbird don’t sing?
Imitating a car alarm at 2 a.m. may be a lot of things, but “nice” isn’t one of them ;).
I like mockingirds, but bachelor males that have picked up a suburban repetoire can be a pain in the ass.
Momma gonna buy you a diamond ring 
The Mocking bird was Boo Radley, a man who stayed to himself. He was the hero of the story. He was apparently thought of as being weird, creepy and crazy by the town, but when it mattered, he acted and saved the girl’s life. He would not have been able to handle sudden fame, so in keeping silent about what he did, they were protecting him.
It was a magnificent movie, based on a wonderful book. Anyone who has never read it for its own sake is missing out. Anyone who had to read it in school (where they tend to bleed all the enjoyment out of reading) should revisit it and see the film again.
That’s what I said in school, but my teacher said I was wrong.
Your teacher was a figurative blue jay.