Timeworn Connotations In To Kill A Mockingbird By E. Lee

To kill a mockingbird can mean many things. It’s the title of a book that has been bought 40 million times. But, it also has a definition. To kill a mockingbird means to destroy innocence. The theme of my literary analysis is mockingbirds. Mockingbirds in TKAM are innocent things tainted by the skewed society of Maycomb. Some of these mockingbirds are Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and the children. To Kill a Mockingbird is a book set in a small Alabama town in the 1930’s. The main character and narrator is Jean Louise Finch, but is almost always called by her nickname, Scout. Scout, her brother, and her summer friend Dill get into all kinds of mischief while living in the racist society of a 1930’s Alabama town. Scout’s dad, Atticus, is a prominent lawyer in Maycomb and is appointed to a controversial case, and is defending a black man. Scout and her brother, Jem go through many troubles and learn many lessons from the days leading up to, and during the trial. The trail makes their family some friends and a lot of enemies. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a story of courage and despair. Throughout TKAM, mockingbirds are used as an example of something innocent being tainted by the skewed society of TKAM. Some great examples of these are Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and the children.

To Kill A Mockingbird was published in the summer of 1960 and it could be considered one of the greatest novels created. Harper Lee, the author of To Kill A Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman, wrote these novels because of many personal experiences influencing her. One being the Scottsboro Boys case where an African American was falsely accused of raping a white woman where he was sentenced to death. This influenced the racism and prejudice in this novel. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee created a character named Boo Radley to develop a theme in this novel. Boo, a man that was living in the shadows, thought to be a scary and harmful person but actually being very friendly, shy and innocent. In To Kill A Mockingbird,

To Kill a Mockingbird is a story about injustice, racism and the co-existence of good

Jem and Scout, throughout “To Kill A Mockingbird,” learn to consider things from other people’s perspectives. Atticus, Jem and Scout’s father, says “you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb into his skin and walk around in” (Lee 39). They learn this through experiences with their neighbor Boo Radley as they mature beyond their years. At the beginning of the novel, Jem and Scout make fun of Boo and assume that all of the rumors going around about him are true. However, later on in the story the children grow an admiration for Boo and learn to understand him. As they matured, Jem and Scout naturally learned many life lessons of appreciation, respect, and courage

In the nineteenth century, mockingbirds were kept in cages so they could sing their beautiful music. Because of this, mockingbirds were nearly almost wiped out of parts of the East Coast. All Mockingbirds do is bring beauty to the world. Mockingbirds symbolize innocence and do not deserve to be wounded by the cruelness of the world. In the story To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Dill, Mayella Ewell, Mr. Dolphus Raymond, Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are all mockingbirds. They are innocent people that have been harmed or injured in the past and have learned the misery of the world.

Harper Lee is best known for writing the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel takes place during the depression in Alabama with the main character, Scout, viewing her lawyer father, Atticus, defending a wrongly accused black man of rape. The reader gets to understand Scout’s childhood view of this controversial situation. Scout’s character in to Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is really the author’s own life playing out in the novel, which is most likely why this novel is thought to be one of the best American Novels of the 20th century.

1. What descriptive details does the author use to make it clear that the setting of the story is a small town?

“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us that is why it is a sin to kill a Mockingbird” -Harper Lee Mockingbirds are only here to sing their songs and to bring us joy. A Blue Jay is someone or something that preys on the week. Mockingbirds have to be shielded from the Blue Jays. Although Mockingbirds don't always need to be protected they do have to be protected from Blue Jays because they are gentle creatures whereas the Blue Jay is territorial and corrupt.

When reading books, readers will occasionally find that some books will have historical influences in them. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee there are three different historical influences. Lee used real life historical events in her book To Kill A Mockingbird to help make her story more Inspirational. The three different historical influences that Lee used were mob mentality, Jim Crow laws, and the Scottsboro trial.

The buildings were described as having, “small-paned high windows in the peaks of their steep gables were like knowing eyes,” as to make the infrastructure have human features to look at the narrator and scene around it. When the narrator is with Mrs. Todd and her herbal remedies the humanity of the town grows with the mystical qualities of the herbs as the remedies themselves “whispered directions could be heard as customers passed the windows” and the wind blew by, ““adverse winds at sea might also find their proper remedies.” By personifying the town itself and making it not only the setting, but a character, Jewett deepens the meaning of her excerpt to have a mystical tone and maintain the

The story is set in a remote community named Wirrawee in a 21 century context. This is stated through out the book. “Lee lived in town, like Fi. "Lee and Fi, from Wirrawee" we used to sing.”(Ch 1. P15) This Town is rural and right next to a formidable mountain range. The author describes the town and its surroundings with in the book with: “Way in the distance you got glimpses of the rich farmland of the Wirrawee district, dotted with houses and clumps of trees, the lazy Wirrawee river curving slowly through it. And on the other side was Hell” (Ch 2. P19) Wirrawee is a country town with many farms surrounding it. It is a small tight night community who live directly next to a large mountain range which is quite mysterious and majestic. The

The experience of visiting the Dyckman Farm House & Museum gave me the opportunity to have an understanding of how beautiful and soundless the city was. Similarly to what George J. Demko said on his essay “A Sense of Place”, “All places change. They change in themselves and they change relative to other places, and they may cause in other places. We may imagine there are certain places magically untouched by time or change.” This quotation indeed relates to the sense of magic surrounded to the Dyckman Farm House & Museum and how this old colonial-styled house is in the middle of subways, bus stations and buildings, yet it feels like time has not changed. The experience of visiting the Dyckman Farm House and Museum meant

To Kill a Mockingbird is a book with several examples of symbolism. Although the story is seen through a child’s perspective, it includes multiple instances of symbolism, some more obvious than others. Mockingbirds, Mayella’s geraniums, and the Radley household are all big symbols in To Kill a Mockingbird.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a book thick with symbolism and metaphors. It is a debatable fact that Scout, the female protagonist, is a symbol for innocence. Though the validity of her symbol is in doubt, I am certain that the symbol in this novel for injured faith, or broken innocence, is Boo Radley. That puts in question the reason why Boo continues to amble down the same road of apathy while Scout is being led down the path to unbiased maturity. I believe that Atticus, the father figure in the novel, is the subtle influence that raises Scout to be aware of the immoral actions around her but not to accept them. Prejudice corrupts a child’s progression of innocence to maturity, but Atticus keeps his children from assuming the attitudes of the townspeople.

The author uses the town as a symbol of the new South by utilizing the historical context, the overall thematic elements as well as the characterization of the protagonist.