Symbolism To Kill A Mockingbird Essay Research

Symbolism- To Kill A Mockingbird Essay, Research Paper

11/27/98

To Kill A Mockingbird

By, Harper Lee

Symbolism

& # 8220 ; I & # 8217 ; d instead you shoot at Sn tins in the backyard, but I know you & # 8217 ; ll travel after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit & # 8216 ; em, but retrieve it & # 8217 ; s a wickedness to kill a mockingbird. & # 8221 ; This is what Atticus Finch tells his kids after they are given air-rifles for Christmas. Uniquely, the rubric of the authoritative novel by Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird, was taken from this transition. At first glimpse, one may inquire why Harper Lee decided to call her book after what seems to be a instead undistinguished extract. After careful survey, nevertheless, one begins to see that this is merely another illustration of symbolism in the novel. Harper Lee uses symbolism instead extensively throughout this narrative, and much of it refers to the jobs of racism in the South during the early 20th century. Harper Lee & # 8217 ; s effectual usage of racial symbolism can be seen by analyzing assorted illustrations from the book. This includes the actions of the kids, the racialist Whites, and the actions of Atticus Finch.

The actions of the kids in this novel surely do hold their portion of symbolism. For case, the edifice of a snowman by Jem and Scout one winter is really symbolic. There was non plenty snow to do a snowman wholly out of snow, so Jem made a foundation out of soil, and so covered it with what snow they had. One could construe this in two different ways. First of wholly, the creative activity of the snowman by Jem can be seen as being symbolic of Jem seeking to cover up the black adult male and screening that he is the same as the white adult male, that all human existences are virtually the same. Blessing of these positions is shown by Atticus when he tells Jem, & # 8220 ; I didn & # 8217 ; t cognize how you were traveling to make it, but from now on I & # 8217 ; ll ne’er worry about what & # 8217 ; ll go of you, boy, you & # 8217 ; ll ever have an idea. & # 8221 ; The fire that dark that engulfed Miss Maudie Atkinson & # 8217 ; s house can be seen as the bias of Maycomb County, as the fire melted the snow from the snowman, and left nil but a bunch of clay. The fire depicts the bias people of the county stating that inkinesss and Whites are, surely, non the same. Another manner of looking at the symbolism of the snowman would be to state that Jem & # 8217 ; s combination of clay and snow signifies crossbreeding, matrimony or sexual dealingss between individuals of different races. The fire at Miss Maudie Atkinson & # 8217 ; s could, one time once more, be seen as the bias of Maycomb County demoing that the assorted kid is, in fact, no better than a pure black kid, and that the two are, really, one and the same. Jem and Scout & # 8217 ; s brushs with Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose are besides filled with symbolism. Mrs. Dubose and her abuses, which included, & # 8220 ; Your male parent & # 8217 ; s no better than the niggas and rubbish he works for! & # 8221 ; non merely demo us her ain positions, but they besides represent the positions of the remainder of Maycomb County. As they were traveling by the house later that twenty-four hours Jem snatched Scout & # 8217 ; s wand and & # 8220 ; ran thrashing wildly up the stairss into Mrs. Dubose & # 8217 ; s look yard & # 8230 ; He did non get down to quiet down until he had cut the tops off every camelia shrub Mrs. Dubose owned. & # 8221 ; Since camelia flowers are white, their devastation could represent Jem seeking to destruct the ways of the prejudice white people of Maycomb County. Later, Atticus forces Jem to nurse the workss back to wellness, and read to Mrs. Dubose. Now, Jem & # 8217 ; s nursing of the flowers mean his bravery, and how he nurses his bravery, so he will be able to digest what others say about him and his household. The kids sing and reading to Mrs. Dubose is symbolic of their purposes to alter the racialist ways of Maycomb. The actions of the kids do, so, symbolize assorted subjects in the racialist South.

The behaviour of the prejudice white people of Maycomb County is greatly expressive, every bit good. For illustration, the ruddy geraniums that Mayella Ewell kept in her pace are really exemplifying. These flowers represent & # 8220 ; Southern white womanhood. & # 8221 ; The fencing that surrounds the Ewells belongings is symbolic of the fright and racism of the Southern whites that attempts to protect this muliebrity. The pureness of the muliebrity is being protected from crossbreeding, from the black adult male. As the black quarters lie merely beyond the Ewell & # 8217 ; s house, the full scene ( the flowers, the fencing, and the quarters ) represents the fright of crossbreeding as the menace from the black adult male is ever-present, and really nigh. In fact, a kind of crossbreeding does occur, as Mayella Ewell makes progresss toward Tom Robinson. Her progresss startle Bob Ewell and convey about his greatest fright, as he is willing to stop an guiltless adult male & # 8217 ; s life because of it. There is besides much racialist symbolism used in the tribunal instance of Tom Robinson. Bob Ewell stands up and exclaims, & # 8220 ; I seen that black nigga yonder ruttin & # 8217 ; on my Mayella! & # 8221 ; This obscene linguistic communication, specifically the usage of & # 8220 ; ruttin & # 8217 ;

” , makes Tom Robinson and black work forces seem like animate beings, giving black work forces a beastial, non-human quality. Mr. Gilmer, the prosecuting officer, adds to this racialist symbolism as he cross examines the informant, Tom Robinson. Mr. Gilmer gives Tom Robinson no regard during his cross scrutiny. He continually calls Tom “boy, ” which is racialist when mentioning to a black adult male. He besides adds to the non-human, beastly representation of Tom Robinson by mentioning to him as a “big buck.” Racist symbolism is assorted with acrimonious sarcasm during one of Aunt Alexandra’s missional circle meetings, as Mrs. Grace Merriweather negotiations about the Mrunas in Africa. She tells about how they live in “poverty and darkness, ” with no 1 but J. Grimes Everett to assist them. The Mrunas in Africa really stand for how the inkinesss live ill in their quarters in Maycomb. The acrimonious sarcasm is that the ladies feel sorry for, and are so willing to assist the Mrunas, that they overlook the job at place, and even knock their ain black cooks and retainers. After the Tom Robinson test is over, Aunt Alexandra tells Atticus that he shouldn’t have let the kids watch the test, and Atticus rejoinders, “they might every bit good larn to get by with it…It’s as much Maycomb County as missional teas.” Atticus symbolically refers to the missional teas as being merely every bit racialist as the test. Racism does look in the mundane lives of the narrow minded people of Maycomb County.

Finally, the actions of Atticus Finch are besides symbolic of subjects in the bias South. It may non look so at first, but the shot of the rabid Canis familiaris by Atticus was, so, greatly exemplifying. Here the rabid Canis familiaris, Tim Johnson, represents bias, and how, like a rabid Canis familiaris, it spreads its disease throughout the South. Atticus Finch is seen as the hero, the retaliator, as he kills racism and bias, non leting it to distribute itself any farther. Realistically, Atticus was unable to delve out the profoundly frozen bias of Maycomb county. Scout says the test & # 8220 ; was like watching Atticus walk into the street, raise a rifle to his shoulder and draw the trigger, but watching all the clip cognizing that the gun was empty. & # 8221 ; Throughout the novel, Atticus Finch personifies justness, and acts rationally as the voice of ground. Therefore, we are, eventually, brings us back to the rubric of the narrative, To Kill A Mockingbird, as Atticus says, & # 8220 ; I & # 8217 ; d instead you shoot at Sn tins in the backyard, but I know you & # 8217 ; ll travel after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit & # 8216 ; em, but retrieve, it & # 8217 ; s a wickedness to kill a mockingbird. & # 8221 ; Bluejays are viewed as the toughs of the bird universe. They are really loud, territorial, and aggressive. The bluejays represent the bias & # 8220 ; toughs & # 8221 ; of Maycomb County, such as, Bob Ewell. Mockingbirds are guiltless, and all they do is sing beautiful vocals. They would non harm anyone. Killing a mocker was the lone thing Atticus had of all time told his kids was a wickedness. He besides told them, subsequently in the novel, that & # 8220 ; As you grow older, you & # 8217 ; ll see white work forces rip off black work forces every twenty-four hours of your life, but allow me state you something and Don & # 8217 ; t you forget it & # 8211 ; whenever a white adult male does that to a black adult male, no affair who he is, how rich he is, or how all right a household he comes from, that white adult male is trash. & # 8221 ; What Atticus tells the kids is similar to what he said about killing mockers. Therefore, the mocker symbolizes Tom Robinson, and underprivileged black people in general. They are guiltless, and would ne’er harm anyone. The mocker besides symbolizes Boo Radley, since he is guiltless, and would ne’er harm anyone. He merely remain indoors because he does non desire to confront the corrupt and bias universe outside. Atticus does, so, stand for a hero in this novel. He is rational and impartial, in a universe that is mindless, emotional, and bias.

Symbolism is, so, used extensively by Harper Lee in her timeless authoritative, To Kill A Mockingbird. The symbolism reveals the bias and narrowness of the common citizens of Maycomb County, the frights they have, and all of the immoral things they do. It besides reveals an effort to free Maycomb of these feelings, by a hero figure, a theoretical account to the community & # 8211 ; Atticus Finch, every bit good as his two kids, who will certainly follow in his footfalls. It is, in fact, symbolism that makes this novel so rich and pertinent. Therefore, it is instead suiting that Harper Lee ends her book with a really representative and sum uping stoping, as Atticus Finch reads the narrative, The Gray Ghost, to Scout by Jem & # 8217 ; s bed. Before she falls asleep Scout describes the narrative, which happened to be about person who was falsely accused of making something that he had non done, merely like Tom Robinson and Boo Radley were. Scout has, surely, learned a great trade. To Kill A Mockingbird was an influential novel at the clip it was written. However, it remains merely as of import, influential, and, surely, as symbolic today as when it was foremost written.