What the overall theme of the book is don't let other people decisions and actions control how you think or act. On Chapter 23 every caucasian in the court thinks that tom Robinson is guilty, because he is African-American. Scout and Jem think of the facts that there dad is proving and they think Robert Ewell is the one who was abusing Maryella. Also in chapter 25 “Scout notices a roly-poly bug. She is about to mash it when Jem tells her not to. She places the bug outside. She asks Jem why she shouldn’t have mashed it, he replies that the bug didn’t do anything to harm her.” The symbol that I saw was the white people are trying to take advantage of the black people, and blame there