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.