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What Does Atticus Symbolize In To Kill A Mockingbird

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To Kill a Mockingbird Final Project In Lee's’ “To Kill a Mockingbird”, symbolism is a literary device where the author uses an object to stand for an idea. In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, the mockingbird symbolises innocence. In the novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Harper Lee uses Atticus, Tom Robinson, and Arthur (Boo) Radley as human mockingbirds to contribute to the overall theme of innocence. First Lee uses Atticus as a mockingbird. Atticus is a non-racist lawyer who is the father of the narrator; other wise known as Scout; and Jem. Atticus is a mockingbird because he is a lawyer who is treated like crap because he defended a black man in court. Scout narrates, “According to Miss Stephanie Crawford, however, Atticus was leaving the post office when Mr. Ewell approached him, cursed him, spat on him and threatened to kill him.”(217) Yet Atticus’s response was to wipe the spit off his face and walk away. Mr. Ewell threatened him for defending Tom Robinson; a innocent black man who is charged with rape. Atticus is a helpful man who was defending a man who just so happen to be black; then he’s treated like crap for it. That's why Atticus is a mockingbird. …show more content…

Tom Robinson is a black man with a wife and three kids. He also lost the use of his left arm when he was a boy. He got his arm caught in a cotton gin. He was charged with rape and was “proven” guilty. Tom went to jail where he waited to go to a higher court it was also where he was killed. Atticus explains, “They shot him… 17 bullet holes in him.”(235) Tom is a mockingbird because he was killed for something he didn't do. Tom couldn't defend himself, it only takes 1 bullet to kill someone. After the first shot they shot him 16 more times after he was already dead. He wasn't killed because he was on trial for rape, he was killed for being

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When Atticus is talking to Jem about why it is a sin to kill a mockingbird, he’s only trying to explain why people do the things they do. In an article it claimed, “Atticus symbolizes logical thinking; he is able to act on the right thing while still trying to keep the peace in the small town he loves. His upstanding morality is characterized by a lack of pride, in stark contrast to Bob Ewell (we see this when his own children don't even know he's a perfect shot, for example). As he instructs Scout and Jem on the proper ways to behave, he symbolizes a teacher for all of the novel's readers as well” (Cook). Atticus always cared about Jem and Scout out of pure innocence which makes him symbolize a mockingbird.

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Harper Lee’s purpose in describing Atticus the way he does in To Kill A Mockingbird is directly used to convey the theme in the story. As Atticus is described as being one who does not judge or think differently about people based on their race, gender, or religious beliefs it is used by the author to establish the theme of innocence. This comes as Atticus is just so kind to everyone around him, no matter their background, it even has Miss Maudie even talking about him as being just so consistent and holding no grudges and due to the author making Atticus be seen this way it shows off the theme of innocence as when Atticus will defend a black man in court and Scout gets picked on at school she does not understand why due to her innocence. She

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Tom shows perseverance and a willingness to help others which is why comparing him to a mockingbird would be accurate. He calmly states that he is a worker in the courtroom. He could have been yelling this fact out loud while being full of anger and rage, since he was falsely accused, instead he is well-controlled, well-mannered and is able to state his facts clearly. The way he presents his facts in his testimony helps make him comparable to a mockingbird. There is also no physical way Tom could have committed the crime, his arm is of no use to him.

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Atticus motivates people to get past their prejudices and to point out that all people make mistakes, it is human nature, so white people shouldn’t be favored over black people because race doesn’t determine anyone’s actions which shows Atticus's morality he understands, unlike the society, that there is more to people than their race. Scout is bullied at school because her father is defending a black person she is confused why When Scout asked why Atticus was defending Tom Robinson, he replied, “If I didn't, I couldn’t hold up my head in town, I couldn’t represent this county in the legislature, and I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again” because he wouldn’t be doing his duty (Lee

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