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Literary devices like theme symbolism conflict, metaphor, and many more are used in books to deliver a message to the reader. “Harper Lee” uses many of literary devices like these in her book To Kill a Mockingbird. To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the fictional town of maycomb county, Alabama in the early 1930’s. It is a story about a caucasian father named Atticus and his two children; Jem who is twelve, and scout who is seven. Atticus is a lawyer who was selected to defend a black man named Tom Robinson on a rape trial. During this time in history blacks are constantly being discriminated against, so this case won’t be easy on Atticus, or any easier on his children. To kill a mockingbird was published in 1960 and it has won a Pulitzer Prize.
Figurative language is in most well written novels. It helps develop the overall theme the author is trying to portray. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, I noticed Harper Lee distinctively used two types of figurative language. The first is symbolism, Lee used this twice during the novel with the mockingbird representing beauty innocence and Boo Radley representing the good in people. The second is motifs, Lee used this to emphasize the small town life in Maycomb, Alabama and helps give a better understanding of the people in the town.
Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird was published in the year of 1960, and is one of the few American classic novels awarded the Pulitzer Prize. The racism that is prevalent in many southern American towns in the 1930s is brought to life with profound imagery in To Kill a Mockingbird. There are several characters in the book, yet the true main character is the narrator's father, Atticus Finch. He is a man of great integrity and intelligence. A very heroic figure in more ways than one, Atticus possesses traits like being principled, determined, and, more importantly, he teaches others. When looking at To Kill a Mockingbird, one can see that Lee uses lots of description, dialogue, and actions to portray Atticus as a heroic individual.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic novel written by Harper Lee. The novel is set in the depths of the Great Depression. A lawyer named Atticus Finch is called to defend a black man named Tom Robinson. The story is told from one of Atticus’s children, the mature Scout’s point of view. Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, the Finch Family faces many struggles and difficulties.
Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, Harper Lee's, To Kill a Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior, to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, and the struggle between blacks and whites. Atticus Finch, a lawyer and single parent in a small southern town in the 1930's, is appointed by the local judge to defend Tom Robinson, a black man, who is accused of raping a white woman. Friends and neighbors object when Atticus puts up a strong and spirited defense on behalf of the accused black man. Atticus renounces violence but stands up for what he believes in. He decides to defend Tom Robinson because if he did not, he would not only lose the respect of his children and the townspeople, but himself as well.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a classic novel. The story takes place in the 1930's, in a small southern town called Maycomb. The book is about the town and their struggles as they go through a difficult trial. Throughout the novel the author shows how courage is displayed through characters like Mrs. Dubose, Jem Finch, and Atticus Finch.
To Kill A Mockingbird is a heroic tale of leadership and courage during racial times. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Atticus, To, Jem and Scout are unfortunately exposed to a really racist and prejudiced society and town. Which ends up causing them to lose a case and really confuse Jem and Scout when they are young. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird, it uses characterization to help show a theme of loss of innocence when people are exposed to surprising and unfair situations.
Even though To Kill a Mockingbird was written in 1960’s the powerful symbolism this book contributes to our society is tremendous. This attribute is racism (Smykowski). To Kill a Mockingbird reveals a story about Scout’s childhood growing up with her father and brother, in an accustomed southern town that believed heavily in ethnological morals (Shackelford).
Harper Lee’s only book, To Kill a Mockingbird, is the stereotypical tale of childhood and innocence, yet it successfully incorporates mature themes, like the racism in the South at the time, to create a masterpiece of a work that has enraptured people’s minds and hearts for generations. According to esteemed novelist Wally Lamb, “It was the first time in my life that a book had sort of captured me. That was exciting; I didn’t realize that literature could do that” (111). Scout’s witty narration and brash actions make her the kind of heroine you can’t help but root for, and the events that take place in Maycomb County are small-scale versions of the dilemmas that face our world today. Mockingbird is a fantastically written novel that belongs on the shelves for classic literature that everyone should take the time to read and appreciate for their execution of style and the importance of their content.
"You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women—black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men. There is not a person in this courtroom who has never told a lie, who has never done an immoral thing, and there is no man living who has never looked upon a woman without desire." (273) Whether a man is black or white, Atticus Finch knows that all men have done immoral things. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, many of the characters and objects portray deeper meanings than what meets the eye. Atticus Finch represents upstanding morals and rational philosophy, the Mockingbird represents innocence, and the snowman represents that white and black people are the same.
“My hair was black like my mother’s but basically a nest of cowlicks, and it worried me that I didn’t have a chin.” (36).
The book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel. It is set in the 1930s, a time when racism was very prominent. Harper Lee emphasizes the themes of prejudice and tolerance in her novel through the use of her characters and their interactions within the Maycomb community. The narrator of the story, Scout, comes across many people and situations with prejudice and tolerance, as her father defends a black man.
Two characters from “The Bat-Poet”, by Randall Jarrell, a 1900’s American poet and children’s author, deeply affected the poetic bat, the protagonist of the story. The bat first heard the mockingbird during the daytime, when the bat was supposed to be sleeping, singing wonderful poems. After a bit, this got the bat to begin writing his own poems, not just listening to them. He created a poem about the owl who had almost caught him one or two nights ago. The bat brought the poem to two audiences, his original inspiration, the mockingbird, and the chipmunk that he had seen scurrying around previously. Both the mockingbird and the chipmunk both listened to his work, but they left him with two very different opinions.
‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ (TKAM) is a book that explores multiple social issues at the time the story takes place in. It was published in 1960 and set in 1936. The story took place when the author, Harper Lee, was 10 years old. This was an age close to that of both Jem and Scout throughout the novel. This allowed the author to really capture the themes portrayed in the book, as they would have been at the time but through the eyes of a child. Despite TKAM being a work of fiction many of the acts of prejudice and racism did really occur in those times. Not only did black men have less rights and were seen lower than the lowest white man. If a black man did something wrong, like in the book, mobs would
Symbolism. Why is it important in a novel? Why do authors incorporate symbols into their writing? Symbolism aids the reader in understanding what the author wants to portray. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird, she writes about the racism in a small town in Alabama named Maycomb set in the 1930’s and about two children growing up and learning that their town is not as perfect as they thought. The theme topic appearance versus reality helps to get a better understanding of the symbols used in the novel and that you should not judge something by their appearance, you should judge by the reality of what it is. “As Atticus once advised me to do, I tried to climb into Jem’s skin and walk around in it.” (Scout page 77) In her novel, there are many symbols throughout the narrative that relate to the theme topic appearance versus reality. Harper Lee writes symbols into her novel, such as the snowman, Mrs. Dubose’s Camellia flower and Dolphus Raymond’s Coca-Cola bottle to help reinforce the theme topic of appearance versus reality throughout the novel.
Harper Lee uses symbolism extensively throughout To Kill a Mockingbird,, and much of it refers to the problems of racism in the South during the early twentieth century. Harper Lee's effective use of racial symbolism and allegory can be seen by studying various examples from the book, namely the actions of the children, of the racist whites, and of Atticus Finch.