The central theme The central idea of “To Kill a Mockingbird” is “to not judge a book by its cover”. This theme was chosen because there were many examples in the book when a character was being described or judged before actually being introduced by another character, some good and bad. Either by how they are or what they look like, people are criticized for reasons that don’t fit at all or that aren’t even them. Harper Lee wants readers to dig deeper than just the surface of something or in this case somebody. The book, at one point in chapter 1, included the character Arthur “Boo” Radley, who lived at the Radley house that had many rumors. He was later described as a six-foot squirrel eating man with a scar along his face that drooled
