Archetypes In To Kill A Mockingbird

Heroes and villains, your usual story right? Well Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is far from it. In this novel Harper Lee uses southern gothic literature to tell the story. Gothic literature is a genre of southern writing. The stories often focus on grotesque themes. While it may include supernatural elements it mainly focuses on damaged, even delusional characters. In her novel Harper Lee utilizes the gothic archetypes of the hero, the monster, and the innocents to portray Maycomb’s crisis of conscience during the trial.

Our hero in To Kill A Mockingbird is Atticus Finch. In this story Atticus finch is a lawyer whose morality and reason makes him the hero of the story. For example in this quote “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. It's when you

know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” Atticus is explaining how even though he knew Tom Robinson was going to be convicted of rape and assault he stuck with the trial and proved his case. Another example of Atticus Finch’s morality is when he says "Jem, see if you can stand in Bob Ewell's shoes a minute. I destroyed his last shred of credibility at that trial, if he had any to begin with. The man had to have some kind of comeback, his kind always does. So if spitting in my face and threatening me saved Mayella Ewell one extra beating, that's something I'll gladly take. He had to take it out on somebody and I'd rather it be me than that houseful of children out there. You understand?" In this quote it shows how he’ll take getting spit in the face and death threats if it saves a houseful of children and that shows his moral.

Our Monster in this novel is Bob Ewell. In the story Bob Ewell Accuses a black man of raping and assaulting his daughter. After the trial he spits in Atticus Finch’s face for standing up and protecting Tom Robinson. "Jem, see if you can stand in Bob Ewell's shoes a minute. I destroyed his last shred of credibility at that trial, if he had any to begin with. The man had to have some kind of comeback, his kind always does. So if spitting in my face and threatening me saved Mayella Ewell one extra beating, that's something I'll gladly take. He had to take it out on somebody and I'd rather it be me than that houseful of children out there. You understand?" Another example to show how much of a monster he is is when he attacks Jem and Scout on there way back from the play “He slowly squeezed the breath out of me. I could not move. Suddenly he was jerked backwards and flung on the ground, almost carrying me with him. I thought, Jem's up.” Another quote for this example is "Anyway, Jem hollered and I didn't hear him any more an' the next thing- Mr. Ewell was tryin' to squeeze me to death, I reckon... then somebody yanked Mr. Ewell down” After the scuffle Mr Ewell is found dead underneath a tree, where he was killed by Boo Radley who stabbed Bob with Bob’s kitchen knife.

Our innocence in this story I believe is Dill. Dill is a boy Jem and Scout meet who lives with mrs. Racheal during the summer. In the story Dill is neglected and is passed around from house to house. “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," his voice was distant, "can you come here a minute, sir?"
Beneath its sweat-streaked dirt Dill's face went white.

I felt sick. … Jem was standing in a corner of the room, looking like the traitor he was. "Dill, I had to tell him," he said. "You can't run three hundred miles off without your mother knowin'." In this quote Dill is found under scouts bed because he ran away from home because his new father didn’t spend time with him. In this quote "Dill Harris could tell the biggest ones I ever heard. Among other things, he had been up in a mail plane seventeen times, he had been to Nova Scotia, he had seen an elephant, and his granddaddy was Brigadier General Joe Wheeler and left him his sword." He tells outrageous stories to make his life look good and compensate for what is not there.

In her novel Harper Lee utilizes the gothic archetypes of the hero, the monster, and the innocents to portray Maycomb’s crisis of conscience during the trial. So all in all in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird we have Hero (Atticus Finch), our villain (Bob Ewell), and our innocence (Dill). At the end our hero is the victor but our character Dill has forever lost his innocence, as well as Bob Ewell losing his

life.