In Harper Lee’s book, To Kill a Mockingbird, she creates many characters and she goes in depth on each one of their lives. Some of her characters have a happy life, some have good lives with some unfortunate events, and some of her character’s lives are sad and confused. We know that Scout has a happy life and Jem’s life is fairly good so far, but their friend Dill does not seem to fit in either category, because of his family life, his life seems confused. Dill is a character in To Kill a Mockingbird with a mysterious family life, although we know a few facts there are still some aspects unknown. Dill uses his powerful imagination to cope with his presumed difficult life.
Dill’s difficult life is at home with his family. We learn early on in the story that Dill is sent to live with his Aunt in Maycomb County for every summer. We also discovered that Dill does not have a father, when Dill replies to Scout’s question about a father,”I haven’t got one”(8), is what he answers. Having no father and having your mother send you away every year can harshly impact a child’s life. Even though Dill shows no noticeable sign of having a poor family life, we know that something catastrophic might happen to Dill in the long run if no one does anything to fix Dill’s problem.
Dill tries to fix his problem by himself. He eventually begins to show some strain in his family life further into the book and he decides to try to fix his predicament single-handedly. When he feels his mother and his new father are not paying enough attention to him and they don’t want him around,”the thing is, what I’m tryin’ to say is---they do get on a lot better without me”(143), he decides in order to fix his position he must run away to a better life with the Finch’s. After Dill runs away, the Finch’s let him live with them for a little while but they send him back home in a short time, making Dill feel helpless. So running away does not help Dill and he needs a new way to deal with his troubles.
Dill’s imagination is his best way for him to deal with his troubles. Dill has a difficult life and he tries to do physical things to make his life better, like running away, but he soon finds out that does not work.
Jems naïve views are soon corrupted as he goes through experiences like with Boo Radley, but Jem manages to grow in strength as he sheds his pure qualities and learns to have hope. Jem and Scouts childhood friend Dill represents another killing of a mockingbird, as his innocence is destroyed during his trial experience. Scouts childish views dissipates as she witnesses different events in her life, and she grows in experience and maturity as she encounters racial prejudice, making her learn how to maintain her pure conscience that Atticus has developed without losing hope or becoming cynical. Harper Lee’s novel explores human morality, as she weaves the path from childhood to a more adult perspective, illustrating the evils in a corrupt world how to understand them without losing
one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it is a sin to
Jem had changed throughout the story from acting like a child and doing things that children do to becoming more mature and taking part in the community. When Dill had ran away from his mom and stepdad during the summer Jem and Scout had found him under the bed in Scout’s room. Scout was planning to hide him in her room: however, Jem had other plans. “Dill’s eyes flickered at Jem and Jem looked at the floor. Then he rose and broke the remaining code of our childhood. He went out of the room and down the hall. “Atticus, can you come here a minute, sir?” (pg. 74) For years, Jem and Dill had been the best of friends. Dill had found Jem trustworthy, however, Jem was willing to do what was right even if it means losing a friends trust. Towards the end of the summer, when Dill was getting ready to leave Jem felt that it was necessary that Dill should learn to swim. He has spent the next week going to the creek to teach him. "Jem had discovered with angry amazement that nobody had ever bothered to teach Dill how to swim, a skill Jem considered necessary as walking. They had spent two afternoons at the creek, they said they were going in ...
According to Google, symbolism in literature is defined as the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense. Symbolism can be seen throughout media and in many pieces of literature including To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. In the book, the symbol of the mockingbird represents the character Boo Radley, and how his story teaches people to not always believe what others have to say about someone without being able to prove it true for themselves.
In Dillard’s essay, she writes of her life alone and then skips over to a moth that she saw fly into a flame on her own free will. The way that Dillard describes the moth is almost like the way someone would describe a dream or a fantasy. She depicts the moth as “golden” and her wings like the wings of angels. These depictions draw a vivid image of the moth and how she looks while she is being burned alive. As compared to Dillard’s descriptions, Woolf paints a strong picture for the reader but does it in a different fashion. The way that Woolf describes the moth she encounters is much more precise. She uses a form of concrete imagery that excites the logical part of the brain. Sh...
You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen. You know Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen. But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all? Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer was misperceived at first. All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names, but after he led Santa’s sleigh, they loved him. Misperceptions like this happen all throughout Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. As you read the novel you see original judgments made about characters transform into new conceptions and new understandings. Some characters twist your views of them on purpose, others do it involuntarily. To Kill a Mockingbird shows this happening over and over again. All you have to do is look for it.
When needing to seek refuge, Annie Dillard goes to Tinker Creek and immerses herself in nature. During one of these trips, she has a little snippet of a revelation, which makes her see the beauty and the ugliness of the world in harmony and thus a sense of what the world is. In this passage, Dillard uses symbolism, verb choice and similes to explain how even though something might be ugly and appalling, it is part of the beauty of life.
Dill also shows that he is warm hearted by caring about the littlest things, “it’s sort of like making a turtle come out…” “How’s that?” asked Dill. “Strike a match under him.” I told Jem if he set fire to the Radley house I was going to tell Atticus on him. Dill said striking a match under a turtle was hateful. “Ain’t hateful, just persuades him—‘s not like you’d chunk him in the fire,” Jem growled. “How do you know a match don’t hurt him?” “Turtles can’t feel, stupid,” said Jem. “Were you ever a turtle, huh?” “My stars, Dill! Now lemme think… reckon we can rock him…” Jem stood in thought so long that Dill made a mild concession: “I won’t say you ran out on a dare an‘ I’ll swap you The Gray Ghost if you just go up and touch the house.” Jem brightened. “Touch the house, that all?” Dill nodded. “Sure that’s all, now? I don’t want you hollerin‘ something different the minute I get back.” “Yeah, that’s all,” said Dill. “He’ll probably come out after you when he sees you in the yard, then Scout’n‘ me’ll jump on him and hold him down till we can tell him we ain’t gonna hurt him.” (17-18) This also shows Dill fascination about the
One of the first characteristics seen in Dill is his curious nature. For example, the reader sees curiosity first when Scout and Jem are talking to Dill about the Radley’s, “The more we told Dill about the Radleys, the more he wanted to know, the longer he would stand hugging the light pole on the corner, the more he would wonder.” (15) By using this quote it shows how Dill’s curiosity struck by hugging the pole and starting to wonder, so now by them telling Dill more about the Radely’s it began his curiosity. Also another time that the reader can see his curiosity is when Scout is saying, “Dill and Jem were simply going to peep in the window with the loose shutter to see if they could get a look at Boo Radley, and if I didn’t want to go with them I could go straight home and keep my fat flopping mouth shut, that was all.”(69) This shows how there curiosity led them up to going to peek inside the window. Than by their curiosity they tale Scout if she didn’t approve of it than she should just go home and keep her mouth shut. Even though he was curious it didn’t stop there.
Dill is an outsider of the town. He provides another child’s point of view, a child who is not related to Scout. According to the text, “Dill was from Meridian, Mississippi, was spending the summer with his aunt, Miss Rachel, and would be spending every summer in Maycomb from now on” (8). Dill isn’t from Maycomb, so he sees things differently than the natives of the town. It adds a new layer into all the things Scout is going through. Dill is young, but more mature than
He even proposes to her! After Dill proposes to her, though, he starts ditching Scout to hang out with Jem. Scout feels insulted because he only proposed to her to get closer to her brother. In another example, in chapter 20, Dill asked Mr. Dolphus Raymond, “‘Cry about what, Mr. Raymond?’”, which Scout describes as, “Dill’s maleness was beginning to assert itself.” (Lee 201). In this statement, Scout is stating that Dill’s maleness is beginning to show, because Dill is, in a way, saying that men do not cry and that he will not in the future.
He spends his times with Scout and Jem, either messing with Boo Radley or just creating fuss. Dill is from Meridian , Mississippi. He is jealous of Scout because she has Atticus who spends time with her and Jem. He says “The thing is, what I’m tryin’ to say is-they do get on a lot better without me, I can’t help them any” (Lee 143). He states that his family is better off without him because they don’t spend time with Dill as a family and have bonding time. Sorta like the Ewells when Bob Ewell is busy drinking whiskey, Dill’s parents are too busy working or don’t need Dill’s help. Dill criticized his own family for not having what the Finches have, family bonding. Dill mentions to Scout that “They kiss you and hug you good night and good mornin’ and good-bye and tell you they love you-” (Lee 143). All Dill wants is a family that shows love and affection like the
Harper Lee’s novel Go Set a Watchman is a sequel of her previous To Kill a Mockingbird, in which the author portrays the story of a girl Scout, who is now twenty-six years old and visiting her home town for very short period of time, though Maycomb is her hometown but nothing remains the same. Moreover, the author uses her disappointment as a theme which she feels for her home which is now become an ice cream shop as well as she feels great disenchantment with her father as Mr. Atticus completely changes her personality even her childhood friend Henry, changed a lot. Thus, when she comes back from the New York which is her new residency, she only faces grief and unexpected personalities of her beloved ones. Hence, author Lee brilliantly uses
In Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird" shows and teaches many lessons throughout the passage. Some characters that learn lessons in this passage are Scout, Jem, and Dill. Scout and Jems father Atticus, is taking a case that affects their lives in so many ways. They all learn new things throughout the story and it impacts their lives greatly. There are lots of things including the trial mostly that change the perspective of the world they live in. The kids are living in the Great Depression and it shows just how bad things really where. Scout, Jem, and Dill have experiences that force them to mature and gain new insight.
Although, each author uses different imaginary and word choice to create a totally different tone between these two works, both Woolf and Dillard bring up the message: the death is impossible to escape, so people should live their lives the way they choose to live – fighting or not – the result is always the same. Using hopeless tone, Woolf shows that fight is useless and it just accelerates the arrival of death. Dillard, by using cheerful tone, shows that life could be much easier and enjoyable when we stop fighting and start living according our needs. The last point of destination is always