When Scout received an air rifle for Christmas, Atticus told her “Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (119). Later in the novel, Scout and her brother Jem are attacked by a man named Bob Ewell when walking home one night. Boo Radley comes to the rescue and saves Scout and Jem by killing Bob Ewell with a knife. When the sheriff investigates the attack, he reasons with Atticus that Bob Ewell killed himself by falling on his knife. Atticus asks Scout if she understood that he fell on his knife in which she responds, “Well it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?” (370). Scout’s response shows that she finally understands Atticus’ lesson: if the townspeople learned that Boo Radley was a hero, he would be robbed of his privacy, thus being punished for doing something good. By comprehending Atticus’ lesson of destroying one’s innocence, Scout shows she has