Symbolism in the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee

Symbolism is a extremely essential aspect of any story. Symbols can construct on the theme of a book like a theme about great and evil. It can also be the symbolism of a character or an animal like a Mockingbird.

In the novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, the symbolism of the Mockingbird and Boo Radley plays an crucial part in establishing the important themes of tolerance and acceptance as effectively as great and evil. Boo Radley is a character who all through the book, assists the young children in a lot of ways and he develops the theme of good and evil. The children go from seeing him as an evil particular person to seeing him as a excellent particular person. This is shown when Lee writes, “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 is why his hands were bloodstained — if you ate an animal raw, you could never ever wash the blood off. There was a extended-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.” (Lee, 13). This quote shows how the youngsters thought of Boo Radley in the starting of the book, but when compared to the finish of the book, they are extremely thankful towards him simply because he saved their lives. It builds on one of the main themes of excellent and evil because, in the beginning of the book, Scout and Jem believed that the complete Radley family members was on the evil side, but when he assists them in ways like he sewed Jem’s pants and he put little surprises in the tree, they see he is not truly bad. They see how he is truly a very good person when Scout thinks, “He was still leaning against the wall.He had been leaning against the wall when I came into the space, his arms down and across his chest.As I pointed he brought his arms down and pressed the palms of his hands against the wall.They were white hands, sickly white hands that had never seen the sun, so white they stood out garishly against the dull cream wall in the dim light of Jem’s room…His face was as white as his hands, but for a shadow on his jutting chin.His cheeks had been thin to hollowness his mouth was wide there were shallow, nearly delicate indentations at his temples, and his gray eyes have been so colorless I thought he was blind….as I gazed at him in wonder the tension slowly drained from his face.His lips parted into a timid smile, and our neighbor’s image blurred with my sudden tears.” (Lee, 270).

In this passage, Scout realizes that her neighbor is not a undesirable individual and that he is a good particular person. She sees how he is really a nice person who wouldn’t hurt them in any way. Boo saved them since he is not a negative individual. He is a individual who was trapped by his parents and that made men and women believe he was undesirable. This builds on the theme of great and evil simply because he has now switched to the side of goodness, in the children’s eyes, and now they trust him as a particular person who they can count on. This shows why Boo is a particular person who assists the youngsters all through the book and builds on the theme of very good and evil. In “To Kill a Mockingbird” the symbol of the mockingbird can develop the essential theme of tolerance and acceptance in Maycomb.

In the novel, Tom Robinson is one of the people that can be represented as a Mockingbird. This can be seen when Tom says, “A soft husky voice came from the darkness above: ‘They gone?’ Atticus stepped back and looked up. ‘They’ve gone,’ he mentioned. ‘Get some sleep, Tom. They will not bother you anymore.’ (Lee, 155).This quote shows how Tom was afraid of the people that had come to silence him, like a hunter attempting to silence a mockingbird simply because it was singing its song. Also, this shows how because he was a Mockingbird, they didn’t want to hear his song and accept it, so they resort to trying to kill it. Tom knew that he had accomplished nothing incorrect by assisting Mayella those days and he was just trying to be good, just like how a Mockingbird will sing its song because they want us to hear their songs. Since the people do not accept Tom Robinson and the black population as a whole, they don’t tolerate when they try to act like they are the very same as the white population. This is shown when Atticus says, “There’s some thing in our world that makes men lose their heads –they couldn’t be fair if they attempted.In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man often wins. They’re ugly, but these are the facts of life.” (Lee, 220).

When Tom helped Mayella, they could not tolerate that a black person would assist a white woman without having undertaking some thing terrible to her. This shows their racist views of the black population and how they could never accept a single of the black population, but only their own population. When Tom was caught, he was a trapped bird and when they sentenced him to jail, he was a silenced mockingbird that would in no way sing once again.

This shows how the symbol of the mockingbird can be used to develop the theme of tolerance and acceptance. All the examples supplied are proof that in the novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, the symbolism of the Mockingbird and Boo Radley plays an important function in developing the crucial themes of tolerance and acceptance as nicely as very good and evil. A society that is not accepting and has no tolerance for the black population creates conditions like Tom Robinson’s trial. Also, the misconception of Boo Radley created the young children consider he was an evil existence in Maycomb when he was, in reality, a person who they could count on with their lives. Harper Lee is capable to properly use symbolism throughout the novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, and the Mockingbird serves as a extremely critical symbol in this fantastic novel.