What Does The Snow Symbolize In To Kill A Mockingbird

Kirsten Berens

Vande Guchte

Honors English

May 12th 2023

To Kill A Mockingbird Symbolism Essay In the past, fictitious works laced with some truth had an impact on historical events. That is the case with Harper Lee’s, To Kill A Mockingbird. Published in 1960, To Kill A Mockingbird, helped push forward the Civil Rights Movement. In American history during the 1950s, the South was very segregated and racist. Born in 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama, Lee was 5 years old during the events of the Scottsboro trial. Later in life, Lee wrote To Kill A Mockingbird; The novel isn’t a biography, but the events occurring in the book, are based on experiences she had living in Alabama. The novel follows Scout Finch—a white, 6-year-old girl—the daughter

Toward the beginning of the chapter, it started to snow. Scout narrates, “Jem asked Atticus would it keep up. Jem had never seen snow either, but he knew what it was. Atticus said he didn’t know any more about snow than Jem did. ‘I think, though, if it’s watery like that, it’ll turn to rain.’ ”(Lee 86). Keep in mind that Jem is 10 years old at this point in the story. If this is the first time he ever saw snow, clearly something is going to happen. Despite being rare Alabama usually gets snow at least twice a year, but 10 years with no snow, and suddenly experiencing a “real” winter. The snow signifies a change, we see this change with Tom Robinson’s court case. For court cases, the jury is a representation of the county where the crime took place. Taken place in Maycomb where the population is entirely white; the jury consisted of only white men. Another foreshadow given with the white snow, is the entirely white jury. Following the court case in chapter 21; the judge is about to share the verdict, but Scout shares knowledge about what only a lawyer's child was expected to notice. 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. ”(Lee 282). This quote shows the fact that the jury decided before the case even began. You got to love white supremacy, they held the whole hearing just for

Toward the beginning of the chapter, Jem was given an Air-rifle; Atticus tells Walter “ ‘I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the blue-jays you want if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.’ ”(Lee 119). Mockingbirds are a species of songbirds; they’re peaceful birds, and have nothing to give if killed. Given its peaceful nature, killing a mockingbird could represent the killing of innocence, whether from death or growing up. A significant moment where Jem reaches maturity is in chapter 28; During this scene, Jem rushes in to save Scout from Bob Ewell, who is armed with a knife, without any thought whatsoever. Scout Narrates, “From somewhere nearby came scuffling, kicking sounds, sounds of shoes and flesh scraping dirt and roots. Someone rolled against me and I felt Jem. He was up like lightning and pulling me with him…”(Lee 351). Toward the beginning of the novel, we see Jem going to stop Scout from fighting, while at the end we have Jem running straight in to save Scout with no