In To Kill A Mockingird, Lee uses symbolism. She uses symbolism to teach lessons throughout the novel.
In Harper Lee’s highly successful novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Lee uses many symbols throughout the novel. The most important symbol has to do with the title of the novel. The book essentially has nothing to do with mockingbirds, but a symbol, a comparison of mockingbirds to the innocent Boo Radley and the African Americans of Macomb. Lee shows and as “the title indicates, the novel's most pervasive and unsubtle symbolism concerns itself with communal negotiations of these outsiders and their alterity to others” (Crespino). As Miss Maudie said, “mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy . . . but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (Lee 99).
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He does not harm society, but he is victimized by the prejudice community, because he is recondite. Blaming Boo Radley for the death of Bob Ewell would be “sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird” (Lee 99). One should not shoot a mockingbird because mockingbirds are innocent, just like the African Americans and Boo Radley are innocent.
Additionally, in another case of symbolism, Jem and Scout create a snowman in Miss Maudie’s yard. They did not have enough snow so they made one out of dirt and covered the dirt with snow. Lee shows that “the creation of the snowman by Jem can be seen as being symbolic of Jem trying to cover up the black man and showing that he is the same as the white man, that all human beings are virtually the same” (Smykowski). That night, Miss Maudie’s house catches on fire. Atticus wakes Scout up and helps her put her bathrobe on. The snowman melted during the fire, showing that blacks and whites are not equal