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Stylistic Elements of To Kill A Mockingbird Essay

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The stylistic elements that an author chooses are instrumental in ensuring that the theme or tone that he or she wishes to convey is in fact conveyed to the reader. Harper Lee obviously realizes this, for in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird, [New York: Warner, 1982] 278) she wisely selects a distinctive style to relate the moving story of a young child discovering harsh truths regarding human nature

The predominant stylistic element Miss Lee uses is her diction and choice of sentence length. At the beginning of the selection, the sentences are short and simple. This syntax is especially appropriate, due to the fact that the novel is written in first person, the narrator being a six year old girl named …show more content…

Fall, and his children trotted to and fro around the corner, the day’s woes ans triumphs on their faces. They stopped at an oak tree, delighted, puzzled, apprehensive.” Once again, Lee’s syntax is very suitable in the message she is trying to impart. Scout’s exposure to the strange and startling realities of the human soul take away her youthful innocence. Thus, she begins to, as all people must do, mature.

Another stylistic element that greatly aids in progressing the theme and tone of the novel is Lee’s implementation of imagery. She begins with Scout on the porch of a house she had once thought to be haunted. “Street lights winked down the street all the way to town....In daylight, i thought, you could see the postoffice corner.” Then, she makes a transition, taking on a reflective tone. “Daylight,” she says, “in my mind, the night faded.” Her reference to daylight is symbolic of the new view that Scout has. Her knowledge has shed a fresh “light” on things. She begins to describe the high points of her young life – only this time with a new perspective “A boy trudged down the sidewalk dragging his fishing pole behind him......Winter and his children shivered at the front gate, silhouetted against a blazing house.” This imagery allows the reader to grasp a hold of the change that Scout has undergone due to the information she has gained regarding the truths of human nature. The words that spill across the pages are no longer

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