Examples Of Foreshadowing In To Kill A Mockingbird

Would you be willing to risk your life and social standing to do the right thing? This is one of the questions posed in the 1960 novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The novel follows Jean-Louise “Scout” Finch, and her childhood in Maycomb Alabama as her lawyer father risks it all to defend a black man in court. Author Harper Lee is a very skilled writer, she masterfully uses foreshadowing throughout the novel. Foreshadowing is a literary device that indicates something that will happen in the future of the novel. In her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee masterfully uses the symbolic significance of the Mad Dog, White Camellias, and Mockingbird to foreshadow events that occur later in the novel. To begin, Lee uses the Mad Dog

Even though Scout’s father Atticus makes an incredibly strong case in the defense of Tom Robinson, Tom is still found guilty and sent to prison. Awaiting an appeal in jail, Tom is shot 17 times and killed under suspicious circumstances. Previously in the novel this event was foreshadowed by the appearance of a supposedly rabid or “mad” dog killed by Atticus. Scout narrates, “In front of the Radley gate, Tim Johnson had made up what was left of his mind. He had finally turned himself around, to pursue his original course up our street…With movements so swift they seemed simultaneous, Atticus's hand yanked a ball-tipped lever as he brought the gun to his shoulder. The rifle cracked. Tim Johnson leaped, flopped over and crumpled on the sidewalk in a brown and white heap. He didn't know what hit him.” (Lee 127). The name of the dog, “Tim Johson”, is purposeful in the way that it

In the town of Maycomb where the Finch’s live, there is an old woman named Mrs. Dubose. She is an extremely mean and racist old woman known for yelling at kids, harassing people, and tending to her White Camellia flowers. The White Camellia flower is the flower of the KKK, and is widely known to symbolize white supremacy. Not knowing this, Jem destroys these flowers in a fit of rage surrounding Mrs. Dubose's comments about his father. This leads to months of him reading to Mrs. Dubose as a form of punishment for his actions. After those months are over though, Mrs. Dubose passes away, leaving behind a gift for Jem. A single White Camellia in a box. Scout narrates, “Jem picked up the candy box and threw it in the fire. He picked up the camellia, and when I went off to bed I saw him fingering the wide petals.” (Lee 149). “Jem picked up the candy box and threw it in the fire.” indicates that Jem is throwing away this token of racism that Mrs. Dubose has tried to gift upon him. He is rejecting her way of life. “I saw him fingering the wide petals.” This shows Jem thinking about the White Camellia, he is considering what it represents and means. As the story continues, the Tom Robinson trial ends, and leaves Jem and Scout with a lot to consider. One night in their room, Jem speaks to Scout about his thoughts on racism and equality. Jem explains, “That’s what I thought,