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Use of symbolism to kill a mockingbird
Use of symbolism to kill a mockingbird
Use of symbolism to kill a mockingbird
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In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, many themes are used.
Coexistence of Good and Evil
One of the first themes that the reader was introduced to was the Coexistence of Good and Evil. This theme is the book’s exploration of human beings, which is whether people have good qualities or bad qualities. One way this was shown was by Scout and Jem’s transition from childhood innocence, where they have never seen evil, to an adult perspective. This transition helps them get a better understanding of the world. It also portrays how prejudice and hatred is directed to the innocent people of the town of Maycomb. These innocent people would be the mockingbirds of the novel. The two main innocent people would be Tom Robinson and Boo Radley.
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On the right I have the quote, “When there is Light, There is Shadow”
This shows how when there are good qualities there are also evil qualities. In the middle, the image shows how good and evil is balanced, and how good and evil qualities exist in human beings. On the left is probably the most precise quote I’ve found. It is a quote by William Shakespeare, “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones” This explains how an evil act will always stay with you no matter what. But a good act may be forgotten.
Social Status
In Maycomb there are huge differences between social status’. The Finches stand near the top in maycomb, followed by the townspeople, then the ignorant country farmers beneath them, with the Ewells following them, and last the black community. The fact that the black community falls under the white trash Ewells permits Bob Ewell to persecute Tom Robinson. An example of the social hierchy is the snowman that Jem and Scout built. They used mud as the base of the snowman because there wasn’t as much snow for them to use. On top of the mud was the snow which represented the white community overpowering the black
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The “Mockingbird” represents the innocence in Maycomb, which would mainly represent Tom Robinson and Boo Radley. To Kill a Mockingbird would be to destroy innocence. Some other important mockingbirds are Jem, Tom Robinson, Dill, Boo Radley, and Mr. Raymond. In the end of the novel, Scout says that hurting Boo would be like “shootin’ a mockingbird”.
Finch
Atticus, Jem, and Scout’s last name is finch. A finch is a small bird with black and white feathers. Ones with color are females. These birds can sing very well too as well as mockingbirds. These birds represent that the family is vulnerable in the racist world of Maycomb, which treats childhood innocence harshly.
Boo Radley
Last but not least, lets talk about Arthur Radley, also known as Boo Radley. If you think back to the beginning of the book, you will remember how Boo was a source of childhood superstition. When Jem’s pants got stuck, someone mends them. The unknown random gifts also play a part in making Boo real to Jem and Scout. All of Boo’s acts are not recognized as things he has done by the author. But the reader knows that these mysterious acts have been done by Boo even though the author doesn’t tell the reader immediately. Towards the end of the novel, he becomes real to Scout as an understanding and sympathetic individual. He was ruined by his father when young, but still turned out to have a pure heart. This shows how good
What does it mean to be a good parent? The most common definition of a good parent is one who makes their children feel valued and loved, by teaching them the difference between right and wrong. At the end of the day, the most essential thing is to create a nurturing environment where your children feel like they can mature into confident, independent, and caring adults. Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird defines what a true parent really is thought hardships and struggles throughout the book. The story is set in the Depression era of a little town in southern Alabama that is struggling with thick prejudice on a colored rape case. The story is told through a character
To Kill a Mockingbird is a long time classic book. The writer has an interesting and unique way of capturing our attention. The storyline opens with the children, Jem, Scout and Dill , (a visiting child), daring each other to touch Boo Radley’s house. Boo Radley was a hermit that they were all afraid of. Atticus, the children’s father in his kind, gentle way, solves disagreements between his two children in the first chapter. Jem and Scout, brother and sister, love their father, but normally settle arguments with a fistfight.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee tells the story of the struggle of a white family facing discrimination for defending a black man. Scout and Jem are two young children living in Maycomb, believing that everyone is like their father, Atticus, who embodies justice and equality. Atticus takes on the case of defending Tom Robinson, a man who is being charged with raping a white woman. Before the trial, the Finches are forced to withstand torment from the townspeople. Their beliefs are shaken when a black man is given a rigged trial and he is innocent.
...es by the evil that progresses in the book is not destroyed in the end because she is able to overcome the obstacles in her way to see the goodness in life and is able to overlook the single story told to her about Boo Radley when he finally reveals himself. This is because Jem is able to save Scouts innocence because many evils that were turned in to hope, restoring Scouts innocence once some of it was lost. Also, Scout was able to see Boo Radley once he was revealed in a different perspective showing that even when hope is lost innocence can always be restored giving Scout a chance to see the world from her eyes, without anybody else’s influences in all its goodness. In the end Scouts innocence raised from the box of racial, prejudice, single story evils showing her that not all people are bad and that if you keep holding on to hope your innocence can be restored.
The two characters in this book that represent this symbol are Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley. Tom Robinson is a “mockingbird” because he is wrongfully accused of raping a white girl. Through the prejudice of the people in Macomb he later convicted and killed, even when he never did anything to Mayella Ewell. Boo Radley is also another great example of a “mockingbird” because no one accepts him throughout the town, which forces him to hide in his home. He had rumors spread about him saying that he was a bad guy.
...e through understanding Bob Ewell and his misdeeds, appreciating Boo Radley and his valorous actions, and acknowledging Atticus’s moral advice. At the end of the novel, it is evident that the children mature into more sympathetic, sensitive young people, indicated by their ultimate understanding of those of whom they have encountered. Furthermore, as Atticus hints throughout the whole novel, the positive characteristics of an individual will almost always prevail, demonstrated to Jem and Scout as they meet different kinds of people and hone their notions about the world around them. Above all, Jem and Scout’s appreciations for human goodness are altered for the better: their ability to sincerely understand the way in which individuals work and feel emerges at the end of the novel, when the children are finally able to accept the contradictory parts of human essence.
Scout Finch, the youngest child of Atticus Finch, narrates the story. It is summer and her cousin Dill and brother Jem are her companions and playmates. They play all summer long until Dill has to go back home to Maridian and Scout and her brother start school. The Atticus’ maid, a black woman by the name of Calpurnia, is like a mother to the children. While playing, Scout and Jem discover small trinkets in a knothole in an old oak tree on the Radley property.
“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (p.90) Miss. Maudie, one of the main protagonists in To Kill a Mockingbird, warns the young girl Scout that mockingbirds should not to be killed or hunted down because they represent those who are kind and innocent. So, on a broader spectrum, the term “to kill a mockingbird” symbolizes cruel and improper behavior towards people with good hearts and intentions. In the town of Maycomb, unethical behaviors, such as prejudice and gossip, are most commonly used against the “mockingbirds”. Three of those “mockingbirds” that are featured in this novel are Arthur “Boo” Radley, Tom Robinson, and Atticus Finch. Due to the depiction of the mockingbird symbol in the novel, the reader understands the consequences that immoral attitudes have towards those who are innocent and kindhearted.
The mockingbird symbolizes the innocence of people who are accused wrongfully. It is a harmless bird that makes the world more pleasant, but it sings the songs of other birds, so it is subject to the image of others. Boo Radley and Tom Robinson are mockingbirds, innocent souls that are judged based on the discrimination and intolerance of the townspeople. The citizens of Maycomb judge Tom Robinson based on the color of his skin and refuse to listen to the truth of his innocence. Boo Radley never does harm to anyone, yet the town criticizes him for his wrong doings. These men are destroyed by the perceptions of the people around them. Tom and Boo embody all that the mockingbird represents and consequently demonstrate how the opinions of others can alter the lives of the innocent.
To Kill a Mockingbird is about two children, Scout and Jem, growing up in a town called Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930's. Neighbors and a man next door with the name of Boo Radley make up most of the drama and suspense throughout the story. Scout and Jem put up with a bunch of trash talk when their father, Atticus, defends a black person. As the novel goes on, the children loose their innocence. They learn the injustice of the world when Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of rape, was convicted guilty. Harper Lee uses the symbol of the mockingbird to show that justice back in the old days isn't always the way it should be, but the exact opposite by using her characters as "mockingbirds." She wants to tell us that prejudice is more powerful than an equal legal system.
...birds are one of the main symbols. Mockingbirds are innocent they do not harm anyone but makes beautiful music. However, they get killed by people every day. There are many innocent person present in this novel; three main characters that are Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, and Mr. Dolphus Raymond, and they symbolize the Mockingbirds. Tom was a wrongly accused of rape, and he was brutally killed because he was black. Boo Radley did not do any harm to anyone, he was innocent, but people in the Maycomb County were thinking him as a monster which hurt him mentally. Lastly, Mr. Raymond symbolized the Mockingbird because he was innocent, however only because he thought different than others, he was looked down by the people in Maycomb County. Mockingbirds in this novel symbolized the innocent people who are getting wrongly accused and their innocence getting destroyed by evil.
Throughout the novel the symbol of the mockingbird has been shown. In the town of Maycomb it is hard to find innocence but in the novel there are three main characters who where depicted as a mockingbird; Arthur “boo” Radley, Tom Robinson, and Jem. As the novel progressed, the characters became more diverse and this has made it clear that these characters are innocent from the beginning.
“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it is a sin to kill a mockingbird” (Lee 94). This quote, delivered in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, introduces the mockingbird which is incorporated symbolically throughout the novel. The mockingbird, in presenting its gifts of music and beauty, is the symbol of Atticus’s practice of altruism because he believes in society’s responsibility to protect those who are vulnerable and innocent.
The main symbols discussed and portrayed in the book were Tim Johnson, the Mockingbirds and Boo Radley. Tim Johnson was a neighbourhood dog who appeared down the Finch’s street one day, but looked very ill and was rabid. Calpurnia the black maid working at the Finch’s rang Atticus and he shot it. Tim Johnson could symbolize the prejudice and mob mentality of Maycomb at the time and because Atticus shot Tim this represents Atticus’s morals beliefs about stopping racism and creating equality. The Mockingbird used in the title of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is the most important symbol depicted in this novel. One day Atticus told Jem that he’d rather Jem shoot at tin cans, but he knew Jem would go after birds. He gave Jem permission to shoot all the blue jays he felt like, but it was a sin to kill a mockingbird. Jem then went to Miss Maudie to ask about what Atticus had just said, "Your father’s right," she said. "Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” This conveys the loss of innocence in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and thus killing a Mockingbird is to destroy innocence. A number of characters (Jem, Tom Robinson, Dill, Boo Radley, Mr. Raymond) can be identified as Mockingbirds who have been injured or destroyed through their contact with evil. As the novel progresses, the children’s perspective towards Boo Radley matures and this replicates the development of the children. Boo Radley was once an intelligent child, only to be ruined by his cruel father is one of the most important mockingbirds as his innocence was destroyed. Luckily for Jem and Scout, Boo was merely a source of childhood superstition often leaving presents for them. Despite the pain that Boo
The first theme is the coexistence of good and evil throughout the story. The way the book shows the moral nature of people, essentially their good and bad sides. The book further promotes this theme by using the transformation of Scout and Jem view of childhood innocence, in which they believe that everybody is good, because they have never been exposed to evil, to a more adult view, in which they have been exposed to many types of evil and have to apply it to their thinking. An important subtheme of this book involves the danger that, hatred, prejudice, and ignorance pose to many innocent people. The people in the book affected by this are Boo Radley and Tom Robinson. These two are unprepared for the evil they were exposed and as a result they were mentally destroyed. Jem is also experiences the same affect when he discovers the evil of racism, in which his faith in justice and humanity is lost. However, Scout retains her faith in justice and humanity, because the case had no effect on her. In this book, the voice of morality is Atticus Finch, who already experiences and understands evil, but does not lose faith in humanity’s capacity to be good. He understands that everybody basically has both good and bad qualities, but it is more important to appreciate the good ones. The view of the world is the ...