"Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird...Mockingbirds don't do one thing...but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs. They don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" (Lee, p. 90). In Haper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee incorporates many symbolic "mockingbirds" into her story.

The first, and the most significant of the symbolic "mockingbirds" in the story is Arthur "Boo" Radley. Radley does not bother others, yet helps others selflessly. Radley gives the two children, Jem and Scout, two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, warmth, and their lives without getting, or wanting, anything in return. Making others happy, without receiving any material payback in...