Examples Of Bildungsroman In To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird Essay There are many books that are written as the point of view of a child, and all of them have a similar form of writing, called bildungsroman. Bildungsroman is a genre of writing that deals with the growth, change, and education of the protagonist. One common theme in these coming of age stories is the loss of innocence and the book To Kill A Mockingbird is no exception. In her novel, Harper Lee used an extensive amount of symbolism to foreshadow the events of some characters losing their innocence, three of them include the snowman, the fire in the neighborhood, and Atticus shooting the mad dog Tim Johnson. The first of the three symbols that foreshadows the loss of innocence is the snowman. The snowman was Jem’s idea after they had seen snow for the first time; Jem’s idea was to use mud to create the body and to put snow around it to hide the mud. The protagonist Scout describes what they’re doing by narrating “Jem scooped up some snow and began plastering it on… Gradually… turned white.”(89). The mud was used to symbolize the black community

The mad dog was used to symbolize the feeling of uncertainty and uneasiness. Scout narrates “The rifle cracked. Tim Johnson leaped, flopped over and crumbled on the sidewalk on a brown and white heap.”(127). The quote was showing that Atticus shot the rifle and killed the dog. The dog was used to bring a feeling of uncertainty that Atticus might get hurt, throughout the entire scene Scout was terrified that Atticus would get attacked. After Atticus had kept Tom safe in the jail, Scout comes to realize “The full meaning of tonight’s events finally hit me and I began to cry.”(208). This quote was after everyone came home from the jail and Scout was in bed recollecting about that night.These quotes were used to bring a feeling of suspense and caused Scout to lose more of her