Before reading To Kill a Mockingbird, I didn't really understand motif. The definition was a recurring subject theme or idea in a literary work but I still didn't fully understand it like I could if I had an example. The motif in the book is it is a sin to kill a mockingbird and now I see what motif is. It ties together all the different themes like justice vs. injustice and black vs. white.

One mockingbird in the story is Tom Robinson. Although he was crippled, he was shot dead in a prison yard after trying to escape. Atticus tells his children that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird because they never harm anyone. This goes for Tom Robinson too. He never harmed anyone or anything, just got stuck in a bad situation where he was found guilty for a crime he did not commit and everyone in Maycomb realizes this. This is one of the many examples of the motif in the book that helped me further understand what motif is.

Life Lesson

When I was younger and I had a problem, I would always go to my parents and complain about that problem and expect them to help me with it. If they could they would offer their advice but when it came to a fight between me and my brother and I felt that i had an unfair advantage, they would tell me life isnt always fair.

I used to think that they just liked my brother better then me but then i realized that they were helping me for later on in life. When I grew older and no longer had someone to help me with unfair advantages, I would already have learned to keep trying and solve my own problems.