To Kill A Mockingbird Dialogue Analysis

Dialogue in To Kill a Mockingbird By Harper Lee

The book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, is told through the perspective of a little girl named Jean Louise Finch, nicknamed Scout. The setting is in Maycomb, Alabama, in the early 1900’s. Harper Lee uses the author 's craft of dialogue to achieve three3 goals. The three goals she is trying to achieve are to teach empathy, promote a theme and to get the readers to predict what will happen next in the novel. Harper Lee uses dialogue to teach empathy to her reader. The meaning of empathy is putting yourself in someone else 's shoes. One might think, ‘What would I have said if I were her?’ or ‘What would I have done in that situation if I were Scout?’ In the beginning of the novel, Atticus is talking to Scout about how she should be empathetic towards others because Scout got into a fight with Walter Cunningham. Walter and Scout started off on the wrong foot on the first day of school because Scout was explaining to their

One quote that embodies the theme was when Atticus says that it isit’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. He says, “...you can try to kill all the bluejays you want, but it 's a sin to kill a mockingbird because they do nothing but make music,” (Lee, 119). In the story, Atticus is appointed to defend a black man named Tom Robinson. Robinson is an innocent victim of racism. He was accused of raping Bob Ewell’s daughter, Mayella. Atticus has a strong case in court because Mayella had bruises on her left cheek and Bob Ewell was left handed whereasalthough Tom Robinson is right-handed a righty. Tom is like a mockingbird because he is innocent. Atticus uses the analogy of the mockingbird to convey to Scout (and to the reader) that the innocent need to be protected. That is why Atticus has chosen to defend Tom Robinson even thoughalthough most of the town had already assumed he was