In her novel , To kill a Mockingbird , Harper Lee uses Jem , Boo , and Tom as human mockingbirds and therefore , symbols of innocence. First, Harper Lee uses jem as a symbol of a mocking bird. On page 30 scout says “ CATCHING WALTER CUNNINGHAM in the schoolyard gave me some pleasure, but when i was rubbing his his host in the dirt Jem came by and told me to stop.” At this part scout was describing her fighting with another child Walter Cunningham and how Jem stops it , and how he explains how she’s bigger and he had problems with eating. This proves my thesis because Jem invites the little boy walter to dinner , and it shows he is a good kid. Jem screams at scout saying “ Run , Scout ! Run ! Run! “ located on page 351. When jem was saying this Scout and him were getting attacked by Mr.Bob Ewell in the dark night jem sadly got his arm broken from this incident. This quote proves my thesis because Jem was a good boy. He even stopped his sister from fighting , tried to save himself and his sister scout when they got attacked because of their father’s actions. …show more content…
On page 10 scout describes boo and what she thinks about Boo and says “ inside the house lived a malevolent phantom. People said he went out a night when the moon was down , and peeped in windows.” Scout was basically telling us basic town rumors about Mr.Boo Radley. This proves my thesis because people were saying all these things, making them up and don’t even know him. But , on page 362 ; Little Scout describes seeing him from her thoughts she narrates : “His lip parted into a timid smile and our neighbor’s image blurred with my svaden tears ‘ Hey Boo ‘ I said. At this time scout was realizing that Boo Radley saved her and Jem. This quote proves my thesis because everyone thought this man was a crazy monster and he saved two children
Boo is a very important character in the book, in fact, the novel opens with Scout and her interactions with Boo and is closed by it too. Scout learns about Boo though the gossip passed on through neighbors in the community. The stories are scary and many out of context, however, Scout doesn’t seem to notice this till after the trial. At the beginning of the book she plays a game that involves Boo, and she tries to torment him into coming out. When Scout describes Boo Radley she says, "People said 'Boo' Radley went out at night and peeped in people’s windows. That he breathed on flowers and they froze instantly. They said he committed little crimes in the night but not one ever saw him." This shows that Scout sees Boo as an object of fascination instead of a human being. She does not acknowledge that he has emotions or feelings, she just views him as a monster who does horrible things to people. Furthermore, we can learn that Boo is not a very loved or respected figure in the community due to his strange way of living. As the trial takes place Scout matures and her level of complex thinking increases, but it is not until October 24th that we see how her perception of Boo changes since in the trial she saw how badly they treated Tom Robinson and she directly connected it to Boo “I hugged him and said, “Yes, sir. Mr. Tate was right, it’d be sort of
The Mockingbird had become something symbolic in the story. The mockingbird represents innocence and portrays itself through several different characters in the story; such as Scout Finch or Boo Radley. Despite their innocence however, they can be injured with their contact with evil. In the story, it’s explained how Boo Radley’s innocence is tainted because of his abusive father. Thus the extended metaphor or symbolism would explain that killing a mockingbird is tainting innocence. When Scout inquires her, Miss Maudie explains, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but . . . sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” This also links the connection of Scout and Jem both having the last name finch, which is another name for a particularly small (and also harmless) bird.
In this novel, innocence is represented from all ages yet all still contribute to the mockingbird factor. Charles Baker “Dill” Harris doesn’t develop and mature throughout the story. In this way, he is seen as a mocking bird because he’s innocent by his childish actions. His childish actions flow throughout To Kill A Mockingbird and he never changes this lifestyle, because that’s all he knows how to do. An example of this is in the court scene when we wasn’t aware of what’s going on, “Dill leaned across me and asked Jem what Atticus was doing”(Lee 254). In this scene the children snuck into the courthouse to listen to Atticus defend Tom Robinson, and Dill is questioning what is happening in the court.This scene is an example of
We all start out innocent, but who has the right to claim what is good and what is evil. Even when people are evil they still have a little bit of that innocence that they were born with. Usually there’s happy ending in stories. The hero overcomes evil and good almost always wins. The innocent people are left out of all the horrible things that happen, but not in Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.” In this book, Atticus is a guy who is trying to save Tom’s life. Tom got in trouble with the law when Bob Ewell blamed Tom for the abuse on his daughter instead of himself. Southern gothic literature is a form of literature that focusing on fictional stories that can be
The author, Harper Lee, said “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view”. The citizens in To Kill A Mockingbird do not follow that quote. Some of the characters are very judgmental to those they don't know and make assumptions about them.Harper Lee uses the character Jem to prove to us the power of integrity,courage, and being true to yourself will help you in a racist town.
In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Atticus is the “mockingbird” of the story in that he is “killed” when other people are against his harmless “singing”. This is so because he innocently read with Scout at night against Miss Caroline’s will, he clearly had the upper side of evidence in the Tom Robinson trial yet still lost, and he persisted Aunt Alexandra’s blatant request of firing Calpurnia in order for her to be the housekeeper. All three of these reasons help to prove that he indeed took on such a role in the plot.
When Harper Lee expresses her message of courage, she demonstrated courage through the selflessness of two characters by emphasizing their morality. Tom Robinson and Boo Radley symbolize mockingbirds in the sense that they are innocent but still courageous. Once Atticus the father and main character said “ I’d rather you shoot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want but remember It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”(Lee 119.) Mockingbirds symbolize Innocence, Lee is displaying that Tom and Boo are the mockingbirds in this novel. When Boo puts the gifts in the tree for the kids, that showed his Innocence, then when he left his house and saved the kids that showed his courage. Tom Robinson and Boo Radley, two Innocent men that no one trusts, portrays
In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee Atticus Finch said “it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird”(pg 119). This quote is important because of the message it gives which is innocence of certain people in the book. Some of the examples are when Jem and Scout start looking at things from different people’s point of view,when the mob left because of Scout ,and when Atticus told the court to do their job.
In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird innocence is spread throughout the novel. Innocence is connected to the mockingbird because they do nothing but sing. There are three examples of innocence within the novel; Boo Radley, Mayella Ewell, and Tom Robinson.
Power is too overpowering sometimes especially for class, gender, and race. TKAM is a book written by Harper Lee in 1960. Mayella Ewell is a white, 19-year-old woman, who accused Tom Robinson, who is Negro, for rape. The book takes place in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s in the South during the Great Depression where there was a recession. Mayella is not a powerful character based on her class, gender, and race compared to Tom Robinson.
Scout, Jem, and Dill work many summers to try to get Boo to come out of the Radley house for the first time in many years. Jem had been told many things about Boo in his short years in Maycomb, and he tells his sister Scout about the ‘monster’, saying, “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained—if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time” (chap. 1). Jem’s ideas about Boo are very biased toward rumors that can be heard around Maycomb. This shows how Maycomb’s people often judge before they know, seeing as no one has seen Boo Radley in over twenty years and people are prejudiced to believing the unknown is always bad. Prejudice and rumors can often not be trusted and Boo Radley is no exception. After Miss Maudie’s house catches fire and half the town rushes outside to watch it burn, Atticus tells Scout, “someday you should thank him for covering you up” then Scout asks, “Thank Who?” And gets a response from Atticus, “Boo Radley. You were too busy looking at the fire, you didn’t even notice when he put the blanket around you” (chap. 8). Boo Radley is not really a bad person, he
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee provides three characters that symbolize the loss of innocence. These symbols are linked to the mockingbird. They are Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, and Mayella Ewell.
It is a sin to kill a mockingbird. As you grow up you learn about the world and how bad it can be. In her novel To kill a mockingbird, Harper Lee foreshadows of snow, the killing of the mad dog, and the mockingbird.
“But they also heard rumors that Boo Radley only comes out at night not during the day.” Scout and Jem start thinking that Boo Radley is a scary man or he is evil. The first time that Scout and Jem saw Boo Radley face, was when he saved them from Bob Ewell. Ever since Boo Radley saved them Jem and Scout stop believing all the rumors they heard about Boo Radley. Boo Radley can be compared to a mocking bird because mockingbirds are calm and don’t hurt others. That’s why Boo Radley is considered a mockingbird because he never hurt any known or bothered any known. The sad part was that Boo Radley was killed by couple of town’s people because he never came out because he was shy. (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081010185527AAZEssX)
Jem and Scout saw Boo Radley as a frightening man who was a childish superstition based off of the rumors from the town. As the children grew up the stories about Boo Radley caused them to become more fascinated than frightened by Boo. The Radley house intrigued them to the point where they snuck into the backyard to try to make Boo leave his house but that resulted in the children thinking that every sound they heard was Boo coming for revenge. In the first chapters, Jem describes how they pictured Boo, which was, “…about six and a half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch that’s why his hands were bloodstained…”. Logically it is understood just by Jem’s description that the children had no relationship with Boo Radley other than