How does Harper Lee use the mockingbird as a symbol for her theme of compassion in To Kill a Mockingbird?THANKS FOR YOUR HELP !!!

The theme of the mockingbird is first introduced in
Chapter 10 when Atticus reminds Jem, who is practicing with his new air rifle,
that

"I'd
rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot
all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a
mockingbird."

Miss Maudie
confirms the natural sweetness of the mockingbird in a later conversation with Scout,
explaining that they don't harm crops and only "sing their hearts out for
us."

Most of the children in the novel serve as human
mockingbirds, as do some adults, such as Boo and Tom. The author adds further symbolism
in Jem's and Scout's names: They are Finches, a bird with similar characteristics to the
mockingbird. They symbolize innocence in an often cruel world that does not always treat
such people justly. Jem's and Scout's lost innocence is one of the major themes that
connects them with the mockingbird, while Boo and Tom are charged with acts--and
punished for them (in Tom's case, with death)--that they did not
commit.

Scout comes to recognize the symbolism between the
bird and the man when she tells Atticus in Chapter 30 that charging Boo in the death of
Bob Ewell would

readability="6">

"... be sort of like shootin' a mockingbird,
wouldn't it?"