Symbolism In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

Have you ever judged someone without putting yourself in their position? Sometimes people need to do that in order to understand where a person is coming from. In the To Kill a Mockingbird passage both Scout and Jem learn to put themselves in others shoes, author Harper Lee uses symbolism and conflict to help develop the theme: never judge someone without considering their perspective. The symbolism in this book shows to not hurt or judge someone if they have done nothing to you. One of the major symbols is the mockingbird. It is talked about through the book but Scout does not understand until Miss Maudie tells her, “‘They don’t eat up people's gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s

This shows to not hurt someone if they have not done anything wrong. Many people will just listen to what they hear and judge a person off of that, just like Scout and Jem did with Boo Radley. At first, Boo Radley is a person of stories they have heard from around town. As the story progresses Scout and Jem realize he may not be what the town makes him out to be. Boo is one of the passage's most important symbol of a mockingbird. Many people hate him, but he has done nothing directly towards them. After Boo saved Jem and Scout from Mr. Ewell, Scout becomes sympathetic towards Boo. She realizes he has done no harm, and if anything he has been kind considering how the town talks about him. When Scout is walking around the town after Boo saved them she thinks about what her father said to her, “Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you

He struggles keeping his anger in and because of that he made a decision that he would later regret. When Jem and Scout pass Mrs. Dubose’s house she usually will say something to them if she is sitting on her porch. They both do not like her but have learned to ignore some of the things she says. Attitcus would explain to him, “‘She’s an old lady and she’s ill. You just hold your head high and be a gentleman. Whatever she says to you, it’s your job not to let her make you mad”’(115). Every time she would say something, Jem would try to understand what Atticus was saying and he ignored it. It was not until she insulted Atticus which resulted in Jem acting out by ruining Mrs. Dubose’s flowers with a baton. When Atticus found out what he did, he made him go down and talk to her. She asked Jem if he could read to her after school and on Saturday for 2 hours for 1 month. Reluctantly, he did what she asked. A month after the punishment was over she died and Atticus tells Jem that she was addicted to morphine. Atticus tells him that her addiction was the reason for her fits but she wanted to get better. He also reveals, “‘Her whole mind and body were concentrated on that alarm clock. If you hadn’t fallen into her hands, I’d have made you go and read to her anyway. It may have been a distraction”’(127). This made Jem realize that even though he saw it as a punishment, he was actually helping Mrs. Dubose get off of her morphine