Quint Beard
Ms. Hynum
English Comp. Using symbolism in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee emphasizes justice, morality, and ethics through the characters Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, And The white snowman. Tom Robinson, a character in To Kill a Mockingbird, portrays injustice through Scouts eyes. Scouts father, Atticus Finch, becomes the lawyer of Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson, along with some of his friends, are caught up in a rape trial that they did not commit. Throughout the trial, Scout comes to realize the hypocrisy and racism that is thriving in the community where she lives. Tom and the other boys that were accused of rape were convicted and sentenced to the death penalty. Although Scout knew of their innocence, and not to mention there was no evidence supporting the accusations, they were still sentenced. His conviction is a symbol of injustice because he was good. He hadn’t done anything wrong, and they killed him anyway. It was a sin. Just as it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. Boo Radley was a normal kid until his “gang”( Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia: Warner Books, 1960. Print. Page 10) got into some trouble with the police. In response, his parents locked him inside his house for many years. In his captivity he changed. The people, including the children, viewed him as something scary; something
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Maudeys yard, represents ethics. Ethics is the general study of the nature of moral principles and specific moral choices. In what our society today accepts as ethics, everyone is the same. No matter what color, what race, or what sex you are everyone is equal. When Jem built the snowman he put mud together and piled it up as a base. Then he covered the base in white snow. When the snowman melted the snow fell away and revealed what was underneath, mud. Much like the mud from the snowman, inside we are all made the same. This snowman symbolized that all of us are the same, symbolized
Today’s society is damaged with the results of people doing terrible things to each other. Peoples actions can make or break lives.The novel To Kill A Mockingbird, is about a little girl, her Brother, their Dad, and the negro they all fight to defend. The main character scout and her older brother Jem, get into all sorts of dilemmas in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama. As they learn new valuable lessons about life, they also pick up that the small town they grow up in is not as clean and safe as it seems. The father, Atticus Finch is a kind hearted soul who was given the case of Tom Robinson, a negro accused of Raping a white woman. As soon as Atticus was given the case he aimed to defend Tom but a faulty jury made sure it did not happen.To
Tom Robinson’s character exemplifies the mockingbird because he is a black man who is denied justice based on racial prejudice. After Mayella Ewell accuses Tom of rape, there is no way for him to be judged fairly because the narrow-minded, white townspeople are unable to get past their prejudices towards blacks. At his trial, Tom’s lawyer, Atticus, argues,
Set in the town of Maycomb County, this novel describes the journey of two young kids growing up in a small-minded town, learning about the importance of innocence and the judgement that occurs within. The individuals of Maycomb are very similar, with the exception of Arthur “Boo” Radley, the town’s recluse. Boo Radley has never been seen outside, and as a result of this, the children in the town are frightened of him and make up rumors about the monstrous things he allegedly does. This leaves the individuals in the town curious as to if Boo Radley really is a “malevolent phantom” like everyone assumes that he is or if he is just misunderstood and harmless. In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, Boo Radley is a saviour. This is
Tom Robinson is another mockingbird figure. He was a genuinely caring person who is destroyed by his willingness to help Mayella Ewell. Just like a mockingbird, Robinson never hurt anyone. Yet, he was also persecuted by society for his kindness and his race. Tom Robinson was killed because of his kindness and the color of his skin; “ a harmless songbird that was shot down by a senseless hunter.” Lee uses the character of Tom as a mockingbird figure to express the innocence of the mockingbird and exhibit the narrow-mindedness and biased opinions of the towns folk.
Harper Lee also represents the themes through key symbolism. The most important symbol and the one that represented innocence and goodness was the mockingbird. Tom Robinson, Boo Radley and even Atticus and Scout were the metaphoric mockingbirds in the novel. When Scout asked Miss Maudie about
The characters in Harper Lee's 1960 novel To Kill A Mockingbird, portray acceptance, tolerance and forgiveness through their moral actions towards discriminative situations. Throughout my visual representation I have portrayed visual symbols to reflect upon Lee's southern gothic novel about immoral discrimination and inequality within Western society through the world of Maycomb; a small town situated in Alabama. Lee challenges the audience about the segregation of individuals through the court case of Tom Robinson; an innocent black who is accused of raping and beating a low class girl. Atticus, a well respected lawyer, stands up for the equal treatment and fair trial of Robinson. This pivotal event within the novel, as well as the ongoing
In the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Harper Lee illustrates a changing relationship, including the dynamic characters Arthur “Boo” Radley, and Jean “Scout” Louise Finch and Jem Finch. Two young adolescents seek exposure to the monster like, hermit as various residents express their perception on Boo Radley, notably Charles Baker “Dill” Harris. This obnoxious character intrigued the curiosity of Scout and Jem to detect the private life of the Radley’s. Fear of Boo overcomes the minors as they detect sorts of information related to Arthur Radley. In the process, the dynamic characters learn information on Boo including rumors that residents conclude being the truth, illustrating the impression of the main characters that Boo is a monster-like creature. As the children instill that misperception contrived by residents, the children began to fear Boo Radley. Intrigued and curious children challenge their fear as they dare to taunt the innocent man and his household that he has not left in 15 years of his life. Boo Radley, the monster perceived elder, noticed these challenges and was fond of the attention. He expressed his thanks by leaving the youth gifts in the knothole of the tree as he expressed his gratitude. The children apprehend the sudden change the behemoth recluse character in undergo change as the dynamic characters. Scout and Jem’s relationship with Boo Radley undergoes alteration as the characters matriculate the innocent character. They
In Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the author explores the issue of justice using the symbol of the mockingbird. Placed in, the 1930s, a time of great depression and inequality, the book presents injustice acts to the most kind yet blamed citizens of the town Maycomb. The symbolism of the mockingbird and the characters are essential for the message of Harper Lees novel because the kind, but African-American Tom Robinson is unfairly put on trial for the “rape” of Mayella Ewell. Also, Arthur “Boo” Radley is victimized by the rumors the towns people have created about him, forcing him to live alone inside his house with his brother, Nathan Radley. Lastly Atticus Finch, is known by the town for being a good human being and sticking
Boo Radley is labeled an outcast and an outsider by the society of Maycomb because of the rumors and myths that have surrounded him through the years of being confined to his brother’s home. For over twenty-five years, Boo Radley has been restricted to the indoor limits of the Radley house suppressing him further from the Maycomb community. Arthur “Boo” Radley was a troublesome child who sadly continued to make wrong choices once he became
1. “…He was about six-and-a-half feet tall with hands that were permanently bloodstained… and a long jagged scar ran across his face… What teeth he had were yellow and rotten and his eyes bulged out of their sockets! (Pause). That was the initial gruesome description we were given for the harmless Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley, but did any of those horrific features actually appear reasonable to you? (Pause) I didn’t think so! When a mature reader reads this extract from the novel ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, they would immediately recognise that the description of ‘Boo’ is only a result of Jem Finch’s overactive imagination.
In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Boo Radley is known among the people of Maycomb as a violent, mysterious phantom of a man; someone who started a gang, someone who stabbed his own father, and someone who was rumoured to eat live animals. Every crime was his doing, and to make all of this even more ominous, he only comes out of his droopy, sick, house at night to peer into people’s windows. As the children have never seen him, he is not viewed as a human being, but as some sort of monster. The children’s fear is reasonable as he has only been described as villainous.
Tom Robinson’s case contributes to how he resembles a mockingbird and shows the injustice of society. Tom Robinson, an African-American man accused of raping a girl named Mayella Ewell, has his case taken to court. Tom is tried in front of a jury of twelve white men along with a white judge which does not display a fair representation of his peers. This results in them finding Tom guilty and sentencing him to death, even though all evidence points to him being innocent. Tom later gets shot while trying to escape prison. Atticus Finch, Tom’s lawyer, says in the beginning of the book, “‘It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird’” (Harper Lee 119). Using the word “sin” shows harming an innocent being would be a very cruel thing to do, especially coming from Atticus. This relates to Tom Robinson’s situation because every piece of evidence from the trial proves he is not guilty, yet he still gets sent to jail and ends up being shot. The town’s newspaper publisher, Mr. Underwood, writes about Tom’s death and says, “ [I] likened Tom’s death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children” (Lee 323). This quote emphasizes the similarities between Tom’s case and a mockingbird. Equally important, it uses words like “senseless” and “slaughter” to further highlight the severity of harming a creature who did nothing wrong. Lee compares Tom Robinson to the “songbirds” because both of them have positive effects on their surroundings and do nothing but be beneficial. Through the case of Tom Robinson, Lee shows the connection with the innocence of Tom to the symbol of a mockingbird.
Throughout the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson is symbolized as a mockingbird by his helpfulness to others, his innocence, and the way he was shot. It is quoted in the novel, “It is a sin to kill a mockingbird”(. This means it is wrong to harm a mockingbird because mockingbirds do nothing but sing music to our ears. A mockingbird also displays innocence to people. Although it is wrong to harm a mockingbird, they are hurt and even killed in the novel.
Various occurrences of discrimination by race affect the community in a harsh way. At Scout’s house, Atticus Finch, the father of Scout and Jem and the lawyer appointed for Tom Robinson, is talking to his children about the rape trial. He says, “In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins. They’re ugly, but those are the facts of life” (295). Atticus tells them that despite who is truly guilty of the crime, those that are black will always lose in the courtroom. It can be assumed that Tom was convicted of a crime he did not commit, because of substantial evidence that proved otherwise. Later in the novel, Tom was shot in prison seventeen times during the exercise portion. Tom’s life was utterly ruined, all because he was not given a fair chance, solely due to the color of his skin. Racial segregation was a very large factor that contributed to discrimination in To Kill A Mockingbird.
Imagine you are a lawyer living in the 19’th century called to defend a black man who is wrongly accused of rape. Because of the all white jury, the defendant is guilty. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch is called to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who is accused of raping Mayella Ewell. He’s putting his family in danger with this case, but he needs to do it. His children, Jem, Scout, and their friend Dill, are exposed to such things that test their maturity. They find out the harsh truth of reality and have to deal with it. The three main themes in To Kill a Mockingbird are losing hope, coming of age, and injustice.