Mockingbirds are chosen as targets by people too shallow and ignorant to recognize their true worth, and instead judge them less because of their feathers. This also represents how Tom Robinson was viewed by Bob Ewell, a scapegoat, and showed the prejudice in the town of Maycomb in Scouts eyes. Her meetings with prejudice took out masses of her purity. Scout looked to her father as a mentor, as god. When she saw her father shoot the dog coming down the street it confused her. Not only would her father not teach them how to shoot because it would kill the mockingbirds, he knew how to shoot and was the best shooter in town. This also took a bite out of Scouts purity in the book. By the end of the book, Scout's nave mind was one that was close to an adult's. For example, when Scout was standing on the Radley's front porch, her mind was definitely beyond a child's capability. Most adults would be too traumatized by the experience in the forest, let alone a child five years of age. Scout repeatedly discovered ideas that were more suited to someone much older. She would act like a normal child of her own age, break off and have the mind of an adult, then revert back to her childhood persona once again. It was only after all of this that some of Scout's innocence diminished, and her mockingbird was shot from the sky. .
Atticus was one of the few main characters that was not a mockingbird. He was pure but he had lost his innocence long before. He was like the warden of the mockingbirds, the protector from evil. He shielded his children and tried to protect them from the evils of the world and gave them morals. Being the only adult in their lives he acted accordingly and raised them the best that he knew possible. Many times with the help of their Aunt Alexandra, who overtook the house in the end of the book and began raising the children, as they were her own. He also tried to guard and protect Tom Robinson from being accused of a crime that he did not commit and to help him fight from being killed because of it.
