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How Does Harper Lee Use Literary Conventions In To Kill A Mockingbird

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In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Lee uses various literary conventions to show different events in the southern part of Maycomb. The literary convention of theme often appears. One of them is the theme of heritage and family, which can be seen through characterization, states that characters are expected to be like their ancestors which doesn’t allow any individuality or uniqueness.
Harper Lee uses events to show how family descriptions are implanted into other family members. On the first day of school, Walter Cunningham didn’t have any lunch and Scout tries to explain that “... Cunninghams never took anything they can’t pay back…” (26) which leads to Walter not accepting Miss Caroline’s money. Walter didn’t accept Miss Caroline’s …show more content…

Even though he doesn’t eat much, he would suppress his hunger to comply with the foundation his family had of not taking things that they wouldn’t be able to pay back. Scout also attempted to explain the Ewell family to Miss Caroline, telling her that the Ewells only come the first day of school and then disappear. Every Ewell comes on the first day of school and then doesn’t show up until the next school year which even caused the truancy lady to stop trying to get them to attend school. Burris Ewell had finished his “time” of going to school, which was one day just like Scout’s description of the Ewell’s. Another instance was when Jem was forced to take care of Mrs. Dubose, she scolded Jem that if he wasn’t “...sent to the reform school before next week, my name’s not Dubose!” (135) Although Mrs. …show more content…

When Jem finds out about the hole of the tree being filled up, he asks Mr. Radley why and gets the reply of “Tree’s dying. You plug ‘em with cement when they’re sick. You ought to know that, Jem.” (83) Mr. Radley seems to have expectations that Jem should be smart like his father, but Jem shows otherwise. Jem exhibits his love for football over education which is displayed when he shows he is fine being a waterboy on the football team. Atticus is also seen breaking away from the standards of family heritage and doesn’t care whether Jem becomes “...an engineer, a lawyer, or a portrait painter.” (90) Atticus doesn’t care whether Jem follows in his footsteps to become a lawyer, which goes against what the Finch’s heritage shows. The Finch family is relatively smart yet Atticus allows Jem to become a portrait painter, a job that doesn’t require much literary skills. Furthermore, Aunt Alexandra tells Scout that she shouldn’t hang around Walter Cunningham because Finch women don’t hang around people who drink a lot of alcohol. Scout doesn’t mind Walter and insists on playing with him, presenting that she doesn’t care that Finch women shouldn’t hang around Cunninghams. Scout breaks away from the standards of family heritage twice, once by presenting a nonchalant attitude towards Cunninghams and twice by not adhering

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Scout is talking to her teacher about Walter Cunningham and his family when she says, ‘The Cunninghams never took anything they can’t pay back-no church baskets and no scrip stamps. They never took anything off of anybody, they get along on what they have. They don’t have much, but they get along on it’” (Lee 26). Scout tries

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