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Foreshadowing In To Kill A Mockingbird

973 Words4 Pages

London Rabb
Honors English
Ms.V
May 11, 2023
To Kill a Mockingbird Essay
“Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy” (Lee 119). The book To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee and published in 1960. Growing up in southern Alabama, Harper Lee was surrounded by racism. Harper Lee uses her childhood and experience with racism to write this book. To Kill a Mockingbird is about a family named the Finches, with a father named Atticus. Hated by most the town, Atticus is a lawyer that defends a black man falsely accused of raping a white women. In this family there is a son named Jem and a daughter named Scout. Throughout her book, Lee uses symbolism to foreshadow events that will happen later in the book. Harper Lee …show more content…

The Knights of the White Camellia was a KKK group that operated in the southern United States in the late 19th Century. A neighbor of the Finches, Mrs. Dubose has a yard blossoming with white camellia flowers. Mrs. Dubose is a very racist woman who has no problem telling Scout and Jem her opinion. At this point in the book Jem is very angry with Mrs. Dubose for insulting his father. Jem and Scout have received backlash from the town of Maycomb for their father Atticus defending a black man. Furious, Jem lets his anger out on Mrs. Dubose’s camellia flowers. In the book Scout narrates, “He did not begin to calm down until he had cut the tops off every camellia bush Mrs. Dubose owned, until the ground was littered with green buds of leaves” (Lee 137). When Jem destroys these flowers it foreshadows him taking his step towards manhood by showing him choosing agression. Later in the story when Scout says “Jem stayed moody and silent for a week… I tried to climb into Jem's skin and walk around it” (Lee 77). In this quote Scout is realizing Jem's attitude and moodiness. Scout and Jem used to play all the time and do little kid activities but Scout realizes over time Jem stops participating in these activities because he's growing up. The moment Jem decides to use anger to destroy the Camellia flower, it shows Jem’s choice to grow up and choose aggression. Honestly, Scout gets upset about this. This is how Harper Lee uses the symbol of a Camellia flower to foreshadow growing

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