Flowers In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

Flowers are incredibly important, especially in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. There are three main flowers pointed out in the course of the whole story. There are Miss Maudie’s azaleas, Mrs Dubose’s camellias, and Mayella Ewell’s geraniums. Each bloom was assigned in this way solely for the relation towards their corresponding characters. Flowers can be used to express emotion or send a message, and those associated with Maudie, Dubose, and Mayella are vital to the novel. Miss Maudie Atkinson is represented by azaleas. Azaleas symbolize emotional control and care for others. The flower could also symbolize elegance. This is shown when Maudie’s house burned down and she said, “Only thing I worried about last night was all

This is because camellias symbolize purity, excellence, and refinery. Also, the flower can bring luck when given to a man. When Atticus says to Jem, “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand,” (page 149) he was telling his son about Mrs Dubose’s excellence. Even as she was dying, Dubose wanted to be the best version of herself. She was a recovering heroin addict, and she wanted to become “pure” or free of her addiction. Mrs Dubose was refining herself in order to not be held down by anything or anyone. Towards the end of the book, Scout narrates that “Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between.” (page 373) This applies to Mrs Dubose in an odd way, because she gave her flower to Jem instead of receiving one. Jem was given the flower as a sign that Mrs Dubose was not upset with him, but it also brought luck to him. The camellia was a representation of how she saw Jem’s growth as a person and a young

While geraniums have multiple meanings, the most important ones are stupidity, friendship, melancholy, and gentility. The first example of this is shown when the flowers are described to have been “...cared for as tenderly as Miss Maudie Atkinson...” (page 228) Mayella’s geraniums were taken care of so well because they were the one good thing in her life. Even with her low social status, she showed gentility and care through her flowers. Mayella was also shown to be very lonely, and she had no one except Tom Robinson to talk to outside of her dysfunctional family. She only wanted a friend to combat her sadness, so Tom became her target. However, Mayella did not understand other people well. She was stupid to have kissed Tom, because he was kind to her and yet she hurt