"Your father's right," she said. "Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."
(Pg. 90)

I picked this passage because it shows the symbolism behind the meaning of the title. A mockingbird is a symbol of innocence - which is a recurring theme in the novel. There are several people in the novel who could be considered "mockingbirds" - most notably Boo Radley and Tom Robinson. Even though there is significant evidence to prove that he is innocent, Tom Robinson is still found guilty of raping Mayella Ewell by the jury. He is sent to prison and is later shot by a prison guard when he tries to escape. Had the jury found him innocent of the crime, he would not have been sent to prison and he would not have died as a consequence. There is also Boo Radley, another "mockingbird" in the story. Throughout the book, Boo Radley is accused of doing a number of things and is the main focal point of many a rumor - when in all actuality, Arthur "Boo" Radley is a shy recluse who just spends his days inside, bothering no one.

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"An' they chased him 'n' never could catch him 'cause they didn't know what he looked like, an' Atticus, when they finally saw him, why he hadn't done any of those things...Atticus, he was real nice..."
His hands were under my chin, pulling up the cover, tucking it around me.
"Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them."
He turned out the light and went into Jem's room. He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.
(Pg. 281)

This passage contains the important theme of innocence that runs throughout the novel and it also alludes to one of the main conflict in the story - the trial of Tom Robinson. It also shows Atticus's beliefs as a person and how he is always trying to see the good in people and tries to instill that trait in his children. It goes on to show more of Atticus's nature as a kind and understanding person- seeing as he stays by Jem's bedside the entire night until he wakes up.

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"That's what I thought, too," he said at last, "when I was your age. If there's just one kind of folks, why can't they get along with each other? If they're all alike, why can't they get along with each other? If they're all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other? Scout, I think I'm beginning to understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time...it's because he wants to stay inside."
(Pg. 227)

I think that the purpose of this passage is to show the reader that Jem has different beliefs than his father and sister. While he tries to see both the good and bad in people - like his sister and father attempt to do throughout the novel - Jem realized that it is much more complicated than that and that the only way to avoid all of the conflicts going on around him is to stay inside and defect from the rest of society, like Jem believed Boo Radley has done.

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Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives. But neighbors give in return. We never put back into the tree what we took out of it: we had given him nothing, and it made me sad.
(Pg. 278)

I think that the purpose of this passage is to show the reader that the main character, Scout Finch, finally sees Boo Radley as an actual human being, and not a as myth or legend. She has begun to see him as a neighbor and regrets not treating him as such on previous occasions. Previous occasions, being all of those times when Jem, Dill, and herself were playing a game when they were pretending to be Boo Radley and they were enacting several scenarios that they thought had truly happened (such as Boo Radley killing his family members), when this was not the case. Later on, Scout fantasizes about Boo watching them from his porch and begins to feel even more guilty about the entire situation.

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It was fall, and his children fought on the sidewalk in front of Mrs. Dubose’s. The boy helped his sister to her feet, and they made their way home. Fall, and his children trotted to and fro around the corner, the day’s woes and triumphs on their faces. They stopped at an oak tree, delighted, puzzled, apprehensive.
Winter, and his children shivered at the front gate, silhouetted against a blazing house. Winter, and a man walked into the street, dropped his glasses, and shot a dog.
Summer, and he watched his children’s heart break. Autumn again, and Boo’s children needed him.
Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.
(Pg. 279)

This passage describes the events of the novel from Boo Radley's perspective - showing that Scout can understand that things look differently from somebody else's point of view and she can now truly see him as a fellow human being. This passage also continues to describe the guilt felt by Scout about the way she, her brother, Jem, and their friend Dill had been treating Boo Radley over the years. This is shown on the previous page, when Scout talks about never acting neighborly towards Boo Radley and how she is sad that she had never done anything for him, while he had left gifts for her and Jem.