To Kill A Mockingbird Style Analysis

Lee’s use of elements of style in To Kill a Mockingbird to convey and support the classic’s theme is what makes both the novel and the author so distinguishable. Using the literary devices of setting, symbolization, and characterization, Lee is consistently referencing the theme of racism and inequality in society. Throughout the first chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee frequently references age and appearance when discussing the town of Maycomb. ”Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it” (Lee 9). The deeper meaning that Lee is successfully conveying through this description of an old and tired town can be used to represent the old and outdated morals and view of Maycomb’s inhabitants. Despite the novel itself

Along with the literary device of setting, symbolism is dispersed throughout the novel and is also hidden in the book’s title. Mockingbirds are one of the main symbols in the novel mostly because they represent what is good in the world and the concept of innocence. “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 94). The symbolism of good getting damaged or destroyed by evil can specifically be seen with the characters Tom Robinson and Boo Radley. Tom Robinson was a good man who was target for a crime he was completely innocent of, raping a white women. Despite the woman, Mayella Ewell, having had made the advances on Tom he had such a little chance of not being convicted because of his race. After he was convicted he was later shot later in the novel whilst trying to escape. Even within the novel, Lee calls Tom similar to a Mockingbird through Mr. Underwood’s editorial “He likened Tom’s death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children” (Lee 244). Boo Radley is also considered a mockingbird in the novel because he as well was subject to cruelty and injustice despite having done nothing wrong. As a character who spent much of the novel as a mystery, he was the topic of many rumors as well as a victim of abuse inflicted by his