To Kill a Mocking Bird

To kill a mocking bird

Harper Lee's, To Kill A Mockingbird, shows a girl named Jean Louise Finch or Scout Finch who is constantly battle discrimination within her town. Her father, Atticus Finch receives the Tom Robinson case, hopelessly trying to defend Tom of raping a white woman. Lee utilises symbols to represent discrimination in the town of Maycomb, Alabama, Scouts home. To Kill A Mockingbird utilises symbols like the snowman, the knot hole and the mockingbird which describes the discrimination in Maycomb county

First of all, the snowman represents how black people should not be discriminated. When Jem and Scout went to collect some snow from Miss Maudie, the snow was white but they also collected some dark coloured snow. They were able to collect 2 baskets of snow and within the snow were 5 baskets of dirt. "'Looks messy now, but it won't later,' he said. Jemscooped up an armful of dirt, patted it into a mound on which he had constructed a torso. 'Jem I ain't ever heard of a nigger snowman,' I said." (Lee 89). In this passage it shows how the dirt which represents the black people and the white which represents the white people should be unified and should not be seen as different. When Atticus returned home and saw the snowman on the front lawn. "You've perpetrated a near libel here in the front yard. We've got to disguise this fellow."(90). Atticus doesn't want people to misinterpret the snow man as a black person so he tells Jem to put an apron on it as a disguise. Atticus knows that in his life time the black and the white will never be able to come together as one.

Beside from the snowman, another symbol that Lee used was the knot hole. There were always items in the knot hole such as chewing gum, a spelling bee medal, an old pocket watch and 2 soap figurines that resemble both scout and Jem. We know that this was the oly way Arthur was able to communicate with the outside world. One day, Scout and Jem tried to communicate with their beneficial, but the Knot hole was covered by Nathan. " 'Here, let's write a letter'... 'Mr. Radley, ah--did you put cement in that hole in that tree down yonder?''Yes,' he said. 'I filled it up.' 'Why'd you do it, sir?' 'Trees dying. You plug 'em with cement when they're sick. You ought to know that Jem.'" (83). By doing so Nathan shut Arthur from any communication to the outside world.

She uses the snow man to describe how both black and white people should work together. Another symbol is the knot hole, which shows that Arthur Radley is unable to communicate with the outside world. And the Mockingbird in order to represent the death of innocence in the County of Maycomb