In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses symbolism to describe racism and justice. Published in July 11 1960, this book takes place in the Great Depression in the small town of Maycomb. An innocent, African American Tom robinson was unfairly put on trial for raping Mayella Ewell. Besides all the racism in this town, Boo Radley is characterized to be a crazy introvert who is locked up in his house.But,this rumor about Boo is proven to be wrong in so many ways. There are many important symbols in this story, but I think the most important ones are the mockingbird, knothole, and the Mad Dog. The mockingbird is one of the most important symbolizes in the book because it symbolizes all the innocent people in the book that have been hurt
The symbolism of the mockingbird plays a huge role in the development of the theme in the novel. The mockingbird symbolizes innocence. In the book, it is believed that it is a sin to kill a man mockingbird because they bring about no harm, only beautiful music to enjoy. In the same sense, killing a mockingbird would be the equivalent of evil defeating good. This is represented multiple times in the novel through characters like Atticus Finch, Boo Radley, and Tom Robinson. All of whom try to bring about the good in people rather than focus on the evil in the community.
The theme of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mocking Bird is the existence of racism and prejudice in the 1930 – 40's. Harper Lee succeeds in presenting the topic in a manner that is not overly simplistic and thus achieves the task of allowing the reader to fully appreciate the complex nature of unjust discrimination. Harper Lee's inclusion of characters such as Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, Dolphus Raymond and many others, aid the reader to grasp the concept of racism and its central role in the town of Maycomb.
The mockingbird is a major symbol in the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. Harper Lee chose the mockingbird for both the title of her book and as a symbol in her book. I believe she selected it because the mockingbird is a creature that is loved by all for its singing and mocking, for which it gets its name, and how it never intends to harm anything or anybody. Atticus Finch says to Jem, ??but remember it?s a sin to kill a mockingbird.? Whereupon Miss Maudie explains, ?Your father?s right, 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?s a sin to kill mockingbirds.?
Harper Lee depicts justice, morality, and ethics through the characters of Atticus, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley; however, the mockingbird may be the most prevalent symbol in To Kill a Mockingbird. “As a child, Harper Lee was an unruly tomboy. She fought on the playground. She talked back to teachers. She was bored with school and resisted any sort of conformity.” Lee’s inspirations for writing this book probably came from memories of her childhood and early life.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is considered such an incredible novel arguably because of all the symbolism used in it. Many subjects mentioned had a deeper meaning than one would typically expect from a story narrated by a nine-year-old girl. Various elements with a hidden purpose added on to the book’s theme. Many inconspicuously resembled something in a way that conveyed a powerful and important message relating to the plot and/or overall moral of the story. Three specific examples perfectly demonstrating how Lee included symbolism in her work so ingeniously are found in the mockingbirds constantly mentioned, Boo Radley, and the Finches.
The 3 characters who are most relatively liked by readers through the story are usually compared to the mockingbird, these characters are Atticus,Boo Radley, Tom Robinson. These characters are compared metaphorically to the mockingbird because of their traits being very similar to how the mockingbird is portrayed in the book yet little detail is given on how this is and why. Each character is morally inspiring and they are very major to the story making big impacts, this may what be what makes them very similar to the mockingbird. All the characters share traits among each other that show how they are a mockingbird in the story and how they impact other characters with these similarities that end up effecting the story. The mockingbird starts becoming a large part of the plot of the book later through the story by being metaphorically there in these characters and each character shows they are a mocking bird in the story at one point.
Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee expresses the use of symbolism to build different themes. She contrasts the good and bad sides of the small town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s. Lee uses specific detail to express how justice, morality, and ethics are amongst the people in the town of Maycomb.
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”.
One of the most important symbols in To Kill a Mockingbird is the mad dog. The dog itself represents social disease in Macomb county and it is killed by Atticus, which is also symbolic. This, however, is a simple and surface meaning. On a deeper level, the dog can represent the succession of a normal Maycomb resident’s life. As someone is young, he is not contaminated with the disease of racism and discrimination, but as he get older, his ideas are corrupted and the innocence is lost. In a literal sense, when Atticus shoots the dog, he is protecting his children. Throughout the book he is also shielding them from the social disease in which the adults in Maycomb are infected. Scout is reminded of the mad dog when she is sitting in the court
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee expresses three of Maycomb County’s problems using the mad dog. The problems consist of the feeling of injustice, Atticus’s numerous challenges, and The Lynch Mob. In the novel Mr. Tate says, ”He’s far from dead, Jem, he hasn’t started yet.” (Lee 126) Atticus says, “Don’t just stand there Heck! He won’t wait for you all day” (Lee 12) These quotes show how Maycomb’s problems where not even started yet, and that they need to be ended before they get out of hand. There are many other symbols expressed by Harper Lee in the novel, even Atticus Finch is a
To Kill a Mockingbird is a fantastic read for many reasons, but a major reason this story has had and will continue to have an impact on societies is because of the characters and the way you can relate to them. To Kill a Mockingbird not only kept you guessing what was going to happen next it made you truly think about yourself and how you would react in certain situations that you would not always encounter in your daily routine. A major theme in the story that was important when the book was written and continues to be a thought provoking question when you ask yourself, “What would I do if I had to walk around in their shoes/ skin?” The narrator of the story was a major part of everything that went on because of her characteristics and how they were portrayed such as her compassion, curiosity, and coming of age.
After reading and studying Harper Lees novel To Kill a Mockingbird, I have concluded that Harper Lee used semantics and symbolism to develop the consistent theme of racism throughout the novel. While analysing different critic’s opinions and views of symbolism and semantics in To Kill a Mockingbird, I found many ideas that aligned with my hypothesis. The three critics and time periods were Mary D. Esselman (1990), Adam Smykowski (1996) and Annie Kasper (2006). The three critics were in agreement that Harper Lee uses this technique to enable the reader to understand society, in particular racism in the Southern American states in the
Racism is wrought within the whole story. For example, even though Calpernia is a female, Aunt Alexandra overlooks her good work because of her race (p. 129). Blacks, because they are considered inferior, are expected to do everything for whites. People are so biased it doesn’t matter how well a job a black person does they are still frowned upon. Furthermore, the jury declares Tom Robinson guilty even though the evidence is clearly in his favor (p.211). A human being has more color pigment in their skin so it is assumed they are guilty without question; truth is never a factor. It is easy to associate the mockingbird symbol to Tom Robinson, a harmless man who becomes a victim of racial prejudice. The Maycomb community are trying to make a fool of them selves by believing they are model citizens and good Christians, even though a small number amongst them know that they are wrong to persecute and hate due to color.
In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the mockingbird as a symbol for vulnerable and
The mockingbird represents an innocent figure. Near the beginning of the film, Atticus gives Jem and Scout guns and tells them not to shoot mockingbirds because they do anything but sing for others. There are multiple mockingbird figures in the movie, the most significant of which is Tom Robinson. He was falsely accused of raping one of the Ewells. Because the Ewells are a white family, everyone immediately assumed it was true, but Atticus and a few others decided to do what is right and defend