‘Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird’.

As a Southern Gothic novel and Bildungsroman, the primary themes of To Kill a Mockingbird involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence. Scholars have noted that Lee also addresses issues of class, courage, compassion, and gender roles in the Deep South.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming-of-age story about a girl named Scout. Scout and her brother Jem try to understand and relate to their father, Atticus, who is a lawyer charged with defending a Black man falsely accused of raping a white woman.