A classic piece of American Literature, To Kill a Mockingbird is a deep, powerful novel in which author Harper Lee artfully and skillfully paints a picture of life in a small town in southern Alabama during the Depression. The novel immediately achieved national fame for its brilliance, hitting the tops of the charts and acclaimed by critics. More then that, though, it taught a valuable lesson about racism that is now taught in schools across the nation. The title, To Kill a Mockingbird, is a metaphor that aptly describes the true nature of the book, the meaning of which becomes so clearly evident throughout the novel. The metaphor directly links together both theme and characters of the book, making it an excellent title for the novel. On page 90 of the novel, Atticus reveals the source of the title, Atticus instructing Scout to "Shoot all the blue jays you want, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." Immediately after, Ms. Maudie gives the explanation revealing the meaning of the metaphor, and title: "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." These quotes, more simply, state that mockingbirds 1) Do good 2) Do no harm and 3) Get hurt anyway. This meaning is then applied to several characters throughout the novel, whose situations are nearly identical to that of the mockingbirds, but on a much larger level. Therefore, the title, To Kill a Mockingbird, explains with thoughtful simplicity the irrevocable and cruel plot the town of Maycomb places upon its own, even if it doesn't consider them to be their own. Throughout the novel, three main characters were singled out by the town, and through the town's actions, became metaphoric mockingbirds. The first, most obvious, and most fitting metaphoric mockingbird is Tom Robinson, the young African-American who is singled out due to his color in a prejudiced white southern town. Tom Robinson is the main victim of the novel, accused of rape by Bob Ewell, a man with a reputation of being untrustworthy and generally, despicable. Tom Robinson was a generally good member of the black society, being unaccepted in the white society. His record was clean except for one small, mostly insignificant incident, and he is a hard-working man with morals and values to do the right thing and help others. Compared to Ewell, Robinson seems a saint, but in the close-minded prejudice views of Maycomb County, that was irrelevant. As Atticus said in his closing speech of the trial regarding Tom Robinson, "And so a quiet, respectable, humble Negro who had the unmitigated temerity to 'feel sorry' for a white woman has had to put his word against two white people's." In striking contrast, Bob Ewell was regarded as horrible, undeserving person, hardly an acceptable part of society. Quoting from the text on page 183, "The jury learned the following things: their relief check was far from enough to feed the family, and there was a strong suspicion that Papa drank it up anyway-he sometimes went off in the swamp for days and came home sick; the weather was seldom cold enough to require shoes, but when it was, you could make dandy ones from strips of old tires;" And yet, despite this, the moment that young girl screamed, Tom Robinson was a dead man. A man who did his best to help and do good, rarely if ever did harm, was still subject to a trial that he could not win-simply because of his skin color. The next logical metaphoric mockingbird is Atticus, father of Scout, the narrator, and defense lawyer for Tom Robinson. Although Atticus was court-appointed to the case, he accepted it because of his own personal morals, which were far from the norm in Maycomb. Because of this, he too, was singled out, and punished, both psychologically and physically by the people of Maycomb. Yet Atticus' firm resilience to his duty never deviated; as he said himself on page 104, "Scout, I couldn't go to church and worship God if I didn't try to help that man." Atticus did nothing to hurt the town, or actually "hurt" the society. What he did do was something that, even though it was beneficial, was unheard of and thereby not tolerated by the majority of the citizens of Maycomb. Atticus did his best to defend Tom Robinson throughout, and as Ms. Maudie said on page 216 regarding the jury's decision, "Atticus Finch won't win, he can't win, but he's the only man in these parts who can keep a jury out so long in a case like that." Atticus Finch was a man who upheld morals and values the rest of the town failed to. He fought his hardest to see justice done - and because of this, he was punished. The last on the major metaphorical mockingbirds of the novel is Boo (Arthur) Radley. Boo Radley, like the other metaphorical mockingbirds mentioned, was also singled out in the town. Unlike Tom Robinson and Atticus though, he wasn't singled out for racist issues. He was singled out for, plain and simple, being different. His need for privacy was unlike anything the people of Maycomb had seen. And for this reason, and this reason alone, the town punished him. Invented stories and the nickname "Boo Radley" were created for him, making him the center of many jokes and games. Boo Radley never hurt anyone, but just like the other two metaphorical mockingbirds, for the town of Maycomb, that was irrelevant. Maycomb County, as a whole, showed generally no respect for Boo Radley, for another human being. Despite this, throughout the story, Boo watches over Jem and Scout (who also took part in hurting Boo Radley, because they did not like what they did not understand, at least for most of the novel), helping them whenever he can in subtle ways. And then, at the end of the novel, Boo makes, for him, the ultimate sacrifice; he overcomes his shyness to save those he loved, even though they did not love nor even respect him. He saves Jem and Scout from Bob Ewell, who attempted to murder them because they were Atticus' children. He killed Bob Ewell in doing so, and in this one of the most major connections to the title is formed on page 276, by Heck Tate: "To my way of thinkin', Mr. Finch, taking the one man who's done you and this town a great service an' draggin' him with his shy ways into the limelight-to me, that's a sin." These three metaphorical mockingbirds prove the key to the title. They were three vastly different people that were hurt for being different or standing up for something that's not the norm, despite the fact that they were in the right; 99% of Maycomb County wasn't, and that was all that mattered to that 99%. All three faced different circumstances, and different trials that would test the will and courage of any man. But in the end, it simplified down to the same: They did good, did no harm, and were hurt anyway. That is the true key to the characters and theme of the novel. They were all, in their own fashion, a mockingbird - and to kill or hurt them would be no more right than To Kill a Mockingbird.