Tkam Symbolism In To Kill A Mockingbird

Wyatt Greis

Mrs. V

Honors 10b

3-12-23

TKAM symbolism essay A journey of the brave and innocent, surely a telltale of the century. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee talks about the duality of racism in the time of the 1960s, a time of racism and reform: Which will prevail? The novel explores the long but short journey of Scout and her older brother Jem and the trouble they constantly get themselves into. Scout was always playing, watching, and listening to everything around her with such innocence, and never understood the severity of situations. Their father, Atticus, is a lawyer who picks up a case that no white man would have the strength to do, to defend a black man, Tom Robinson. A black man was accused of raping a girl. Foreshadowing

Jem was walking by Ms. At Dubose's house, she is a racist white lady who is losing her mind in her old age. Ms. Dubose speaks against Atticus for defending Tom Robinson and that sets Jem off leading to the cutting of all of her White Camellias that she grew in her yard. As punishment, Atticus sends Jem to read to her every day after school for a few hours. After a while, she was met with death and as a parting gift Atticus comes back with a present to Jem from Ms. Dubose, “Jem opened the box. Inside, around by wads of damp cotton, was a white, perfect camellia”. (Lee 128). Ms. Dubose was a very old racist white lady who supported all forms of racism, that is why she grew White Camellias; because she supports the KKK’s views. That is how the White Camellia directly relates to the group of white farmers who show up at the prison to kill Tom. Later in the story Jem, Scout, and Dill snuck over to the prison where Atticus was sitting, waiting for the mob of white farmers to try and kill Tom. Running to Atticus, Scout fails to realize what she has got herself into. After they realize these are strangers Atticus instructs them to go home, “Go home Jem,” he said. “Take Scout and Dill home. “We were accustomed to prompt, if not always cheerful acquiescence to Atticus’s instructions, but from the way he stood Jem was not thinking of bulging”.(Lee 173). Jem throwing away the White Camellia was a sign of him throwing

Scout was sleeping one night when Atticus goes into her room and gets her robe on to get her and Jem out of the house. Dazed and half asleep, she did not realize what was happening at first but it did not take her long to know what was happening. Atticus escorts both of them outside to see Miss. Maudie's house burning down, who was their next-door neighbor; one of the other rare people in Maycomb who are not racist. Scout narrates “The fire was well into the second floor and has eaten away its roof: window frames were black against a vivid orange center”. (Lee 79) this symbol is used to represent the burning down of something old and something new emerging. That new thing emerging was the case of Tom Robinson vs. the Ewells. As the story progresses, there is a new conflict that will reshape history and the way we look at things. The time came when Atticus defended Tom Robinson in the case against the Ewells. After many hours of cross-examination and waiting for the jury the answer that everyone expected but did not want to hear was announced. Scout narrates, “A jury never looks at a defendant it has convicted, and when this jury came in, not one of them looked at Tom Robinson. The foreman handed a piece of paper to Mr. Tate who handed it to the clerk who handed it to the judge….” “Guilty”(Lee 217). The burning down of an old conflict