Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit em, but remember its a sin to kill a mockingbird lawyer atticus finch gives this advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of harper lees classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl through the young eyes of scout and jem finch, harper lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the deep south of the 1930s the conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one mans struggle for justice but the weight of history will only tolerate so much a benchmark of classic american literature, to kill a mockingbird approaches the highly sensitive topic of racism in 1930s america with humour, warmth and compassion, making it widely recognised as one of the best books of the twentieth century and in american literature