The theme of this film is based on the structure of
social injustice and also contains elements of a coming of age picture. The setting of a small 1930’s Alabama town is ideal for a revelation of searing racial tensions. Yet the choice of a little girl as a viewpoint breaks down the motif to such a size that no one escapes the principle. The true colors of the town bleed through when
Tom Robinson, a poor Negro, is charged with assaulting and raping a local white girl. The fact that a black man could be tried and convicted of such a serious crime with absolutely no evidence illustrates a serious problem not only in the court, but in the hearts of the people. Aside from Atticus, the children seem to be the only white people that hold no discrimination against race, yet they are guilty of their own form of narrow-mindedness. Scout and Jem hate and fear a person whom they have never seen. All they know of their neighbor Arthur “Boo” Radley are skeptical and slightly unrealistic rumors, yet they are satisfied to remain blinded by their fear and ignorance. This basic and childish behavior is used to draw a parallel to the way the town treats Tom Robinson and, vicariously, the rest of the black community. However all hope is not lost in the end. As Scout realizes that Boo is no one to dread and the two become friends, so too do we realize that the town can likewise learn to shed its bigotry and embrace its subject of unfounded malice.
“It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird,” relates Atticus to his children at the dinner table. A mockingbird hurts no one; it merely sings beautifully and peacefully. “To kill a mockingbird,” then, is to convict an innocent or to prejudice one who does not deserve it. The most obvious mockingbird in this film is Tom Robinson for his unfair conviction. However, Boo Radley is also a mockingbird because of the way the children treated him. Yet the children themselves become a more obscure mockingbird in that they are stereotyped as silly children when in fact they have a substantial impact in the sequence of events. Finally, their father, Atticus, is also made a kind of mockingbird because of his children’s assumptions about him, as revealed in the shooting of the rabid dog. Scout and Jem would have never thought their four-eyed lawyer of a dad was the best shot in town. Although one mockingbird was made to die, many more were set free.