Introduction

By Paul Anderson

My son is having me read To Kill A Mockingbird this month. I had to read it as a child. So, I think it will be interesting to see if I react any different to it as an adult. Of course, I still remember the line, “Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

It's a sin to feed a Mockingbird

So, going in this time, I knew to look for the clues to the mockingbird symbolism. As I tried to remember the book, I started with the assumption that the Mockingbird was Tom Robinson, the person who was on trial for his life. I thought I was justified when Mr. Underwood's editorial "likened Tom’s death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children." I said to myself, "Nailed it. How easy." Of course, the rest of the book was yet to come.

To Kill A Mockingbird is my mom's favorite book (and movie too). So, I asked her, "For what is the Mockingbird a symbol?" She said, "Innocence." However, the bluejay line made me think that, perhaps, there was more to the message of the book than just the simple idea, "It is wrong to kill the innocent." After all, you can kill the Bluejay. And that was the part I didn't remember. Was the Bluejay a character in the story too? Or was it just a counterpoint to the Mockingbird and just a general symbol of guilt?

My pride over having discovered the identity of the Mockingbird was short-lived when I heard Scout comment about the plan to turn a blind eye to Boo Radley's killing of Bob Ewell, "Well, it'd be sort of like shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn't it?" Now, there were two characters compared to the Mockingbird. And now we have a dead Bluejay: Bob Ewell. Not as easy as I had remembered.

While the Bluejay may just be one character, the Mockingbird theme seems to permeate the book. For a time, I thought Atticus was the Mockingbird. He is the one who kills the mad dog, which could have been a type of Bluejay. Also, he, single-handedly, puts his life on the line to stand between the mob and Tom Robinson. However, it was not his innocence that disperses the blood-thirsty mob, it was Scout's. This scene made me think that I have figured out what Jesus was writing on the ground: Mockingbird (John 8:6). She seems to be the picture of innocence throughout the book and was the target of the villain. A greater Mockingbird he could not have killed.

So, as an adult, I enjoyed it more than the first time. The book was 12 hours and 17 minutes but seemed longer. I now feel that Nazis make the best films, but Southerners make the best novels. I think I understand the symbolism better and caught more of the Biblical references. I understand letting the dead bury the dead (Luke 9:60), and I get the foot-washers who think "women are a sin by definition" (John 13:5). I can relate to the foot-washers because I realize I have my own idiosyncrasies. For instance, I think it is a sin to name a dog Tim Johnson.

However, the most dramatic moment in the film was even more compelling now in word. In a time when it is fashionable to kneel down for those things we hate, I was reminded it is far better to stand up for the good.

"Stand up, Miss Jean Louise, your father is passing."

Since I didn't remember the part about it being ok to shoot bluejays, and I am not sure that killing a mockingbird is a sin in the Bible, I will check.

Here are my top 12 verses on Birds:

Jesus On Birds

Matthew 6:26 King James Version

26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

Mark 4:4 King James Version

4 And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.

Luke 9:58 King James Version

58 And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

John 2:16 King James Version

16 And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.

Birds In The New Testament

Mark 1:10 King James Version

10 And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him:

Romans 1:20-23 King James Version

20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

James 3:7-8 King James Version

7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:

8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

Revelation 18:2 King James Version

2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

Birds In The Old Testament

Leviticus 11:13-16 King James Version

13 And these are they which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,

14 And the vulture, and the kite after his kind;

15 Every raven after his kind;

16 And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind,

Deuteronomy 14:11 King James Version

11 Of all clean birds ye shall eat.

Proverbs 27:8 King James Version

8 As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place.

Isaiah 46:11 King James Version

11 Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.

Conclusion Of The Whole Matter

Since To Kill A Mockingbird didn't last the entire month, I also read another novel I loved as a child: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. It kept with the Bird theme and has a lot of Christ symbolism throughout. The lead character is Randle Patrick McMurphy, a convict who pretends to be insane to get out of work at the prison farm. His nemesis is Nurse Ratched, who fights with McMurphy for control of the free will of the psychiatric hospital's three kinds of patients (wheelers, walkers, and vegetables).

McMurphy's own language points to his coming martyrdom when he says, "You looked to me like I was your savior," and "Anoint my head with conductant and give me a crown of thorns." However, McMurphy has to bide his time before he can defeat Nurse Ratched, as she controls his fate as a committed patient.

It is the wise gambler who watches the game before he draws a hand.

- RP McMurphy

Nurse Ratched say McMurphy can't be sent away from her ward to Disturbed or he'll become a martyr, where they use a cross-shaped table to give electroshock therapy sessions. When he does finally leave her ward, she points out that he is trying to look like a martyr but highlights his gambling and profiteering as a way to prove he was just taking advantage of the patients and can't be a martyr because he's not a saint.

However, it is his death that sets most of the patients free. When McMurphy dies, Scanlon asks, "Is it finished?"

The title of the book is a line from a nursery rhyme:

Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn,

Apple seed and apple thorn,

Wire, briar, limber lock

Three geese in a flock

One flew East

One flew West

And one flew over the cuckoo's nest

The one who flew over the cuckoo's nest is Chief Bromden, McMurphy's closest disciple. While who flew East and who flew West is not as clear, they could refer to one group of patients who voluntarily left the hospital and another group of patients who transferred to a different ward away from Nurse Ratched.

As far as the Bible is concerned, many types of birds are mentioned, although they might be hard to translate as many versions differ about specific birds. In general, the bird might be symbolic of all animals as some translations add "hateful animals" to the unclean birds in Revelation 18:2. There does seem to be a bit of a negative slant to birds when used symbolically. Fowls are symbol of Satan in the Parable of the Sower and the prophecy of the ravenous bird is thought to be Cyrus the Great.

Dove is the most common bird. The Cuckoo is referenced once as an unclean bird (Leviticus 11:13-16) and cannot be eaten. While the Mockingbird or Bluejay is not used even once. Since the Mockingbird is not specifically mentioned, it would fall under Deuteronomy 14:11 and be a clean animal.

Therefore, it is not a sin to kill a Mockingbird. Just don't feed it.

49 Bible results for “bird” from King James Version.

Old Testament (42)

Genesis (4)
Leviticus (9)
Deuteronomy (2)
2 Samuel (1)
Job (1)
Psalm (3)
Proverbs (5)
Ecclesiastes (3)
Song of Solomon (1)
Isaiah (3)
Jeremiah (4)
Lamentations (1)
Ezekiel (1)
Daniel (1)
Hosea (2)
Amos (1)

New Testament (7)

Matthew (2)
Luke (1)
Romans (1)
1 Corinthians (1)
James (1)
Revelation (1)

88 Bible results for “fowl” from King James Version.

Old Testament (77)

Genesis (21)
Leviticus (7)
Deuteronomy (3)
1 Samuel (2)
1 Kings (5)
Nehemiah (1)
Job (4)
Psalm (8)
Proverbs (1)
Isaiah (1)
Jeremiah (6)
Ezekiel (8)
Daniel (5)
Hosea (4)
Zephaniah (1)

New Testament (11)

Matthew (2)
Mark (2)
Luke (3)
Acts (2)
Revelation (2)

31 Bible results for “dove” from King James Version.

Old Testament (22)

Genesis (5)
2 Kings (1)
Psalm (2)
Song of Solomon (6)
Isaiah (3)
Jeremiah (1)
Ezekiel (1)
Hosea (2)
Nahum (1)

New Testament (9)

Matthew (3)
Mark (2)
Luke (1)
John (3)

Scripture contributions for March 2023 by: Paul Anderson, Matthew Anderson

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