What does an olive branch represent? What about a vulture or even a mockingbird? Harper Lee is the highly praised and accredited author of the best selling novel Kill a Mockingbird. In the Novel, Harper Lee uses profound symbolization through her characters and events to represent racial and societal issues and the prevalence of ethnic prejudice. Harper Lee was the daughter of a lawyer, businessman and rural Alabama state representative Amasa Coleman Lee, which is believed to have given her the inspiration behind the book. Harper Lee hints at this in the characters Atticus and Scout, who have similar occupations and shared Harper's distaste for racial prejudice; She uses these two characters frequently to symbolize and represent the issues …show more content…
This is quite prevalent in Atticus's conversations with Jem and Scout throughout the book. A great example of this is when Scout and Jem receive air rifles for Christmas, Atticus later states “...I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit’em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird” (lee 119). This quote is an excellent manifestation of foreshadowing later events that unfold in the trail of Tom Robinson, likewise a mockingbird is seen as a symbol of innocence and purity, which also gives reference to the title, “To Kill a Mockingbird” hinting towards Tom Robinson's eventual wrongful conviction and death at the end of the novel. Another scene that shows the symbolism teeming throughout the book is when a rabid dog named Tim Johnson gets gunned down by Atticus, after which Atticus says to Jem “don’t go near him, he is just as dangerous dead as alive” (lee 128). In this simple phrase we can see Atticus warning Jem of the dangers of the dead dog, however, this is also quite a symbolic scene and the dog can be symbolized as a portrayal of Bob Ewell who later attacked Jem and Scout, after which he wound up dead but, the memory of the hatred and trial still influence the actions of the community of Maycomb after exposing the