Symbolism Case

Symbolism is the art of practice of using symbols to represent something or someone in a story. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, the author Harper Lee uses this literary device periodically. The biggest use of symbolism comes from the title. Harper Lee uses the mockingbird to symbolically represent the two characters in the book Tom Robinson and Arthur "Boo" Radley.

In this story the author uses the mockingbird to symbolize innocence and defenselessness. In the book, Atticus Finch tells his kids Jem and Scout, "Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mocking bird." (Lee 90). What he is saying is killing or take advantage of something that only does good things for people like the mockingbird sings is wrong and a sin. The mockingbird is so innocent and it only brings happiness and it never does anything to give something a reason to kill it.

Tom Robinson is one of the characters in the book that the author uses to symbolize the mockingbird. Tom is a black man, with only one working arm, who gets accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman. The reason he is a symbol of a mockingbird is because he is a black crippled man; so therefore, since he never really committed the crime, he is defenseless and will not ever have a chance against the jury because they are all prejudice white men. Also, because he's a cripple, he couldn't have done it, and when he supposedly raped Mayella he was only trying to help her. When the jury wrongly convicted Tom, and put him in jail, he ended up trying to escape and got shot by guards, and in the end of things they ended up killing the "mockingbird". Scout talks about Mr. Underwood, who writes about Tom's death in an article in the paper, and she says "Mr. Underwood simply figured it was a sin to kill cripples weather they're standing, sitting, or escaping. He likened Tom's death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children" (Lee 241). The fact that when he was accused of rape he just got done chopping up some wood for Mayella and he was about to do another task for her makes him even being in that position of having to escape from jail, and the guards killing him more like killing the mocking bird.

In addition to Tom Robinson, Arthur "Boo" Radley symbolizes the mockingbird in this story. Boo Radley was supposedly a creeper who walked around at night looking in windows and eating cats. The kids Jem, Scout, and Dill spent most of their time together trying to get him to

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