In Harper Lee’s award-winning 1960 novel To Kill A Mockingbird, symbolism is often used throughout the book. To Kill A Mockingbird is a historical fiction about Atticus fighting racism and his 2 kids Scout and Jem having to deal with the consequences of that in a racist town. Harper Lee cleverly uses symbols like Mad Dog and a Mockingbird to portray racial injustices, but one of the most subtle yet more exciting choices of symbolism are flowers. Whether it be Miss Maudie's nut grass, Mrs. Dubose’s camellias, or Mayella's geraniums, Harper Lee finds one way or another to use different objects to symbolize or convey important messages in her book.
One symbol that is used in To Kill A Mockingbird to help the reader understand an important lesson is Miss Maudie's garden. Specifically nut grass. According to Premier Nursery, it says “Nut grass is one of the most invasive weeds. Its existence in crops or fields can significantly reduce production because it competes for nutrients and resources.” This shows that in the real world, nut grass is poisonous to other plants. To Kill A Mockingbird is also no exception. In chapter 5, page 43, Miss Maudie says, “Why one sprig of nut grass can ruin a whole yard.” In this scenario, nut grass
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Dubose’s Camellias. According to bouqs.com “In Japan, White Camellias represent death.” This is also true in To Kill A Mockingbird. Mrs. Dubose’s flowers are used as a symbol of time and a method of foreshadowing. In chapter 11, Jem gets so frustrated with Mrs. Dubose that he destroys all of her camellias. In the book, it says “He did not begin to calm down until he had cut the tops off of every camellia.” (pg 106) In this case, the camellias represent time, showing that after what Mrs. Dubose said about Atticus Jem had no more time/patience for her. This also foreshadowed that Mrs. Dubose was going to die because the Camellias were her life and once they died, so did
In the novel, author Harper Lee uses a great deal of symbolism. Symbolism means the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. Each three of the symbols will either tie with morality, justice, or ethics. The novelist uses symbols like the Mockingbird, Atticus, and Bob Ewell to understand the greater themes of the novel.
First, Eugenia Collier uses Miss Lottie’s marigolds to symbolize hope. When Lizabeth sees Miss Lottie's house, and the narrator describes the marigolds. “Beyond the dusty brown yard, in front of the
After reading the invigorating and richly textured novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, it is evidently established that symbolism is dredged in depth throughout. Although most illustrations in fact are inferred, such symbols are somewhat apparent and exemplifying. For example, the knothole, or a hole in a piece of timber, is one of the key symbols in the novel because it constitutes a connection or relationship between Jem, Scout, and Boo. In the novel Boo distributes several relevant objects to Jem and Scout by placing them in the knothole, instead of verbally communicating. As everyone in the county believes Boo is actually insane and violent through passed down uncivil rumors.
Mrs Dubose's blatant racism is important alongside the white camellias to provide reasoning for Jem’s disturbance. When Jem cuts the heads of the camellias in response to Mrs Dubose, Lee correlates the act with the killing of racism. Subsequently, Mrs Dubose taunts Jem, saying he didn’t kill the flowers and they are “growing back”(126). She continues by telling him to “next time…do it right” by “pull[ing] it up by the roots”(126). The flowers growing back symbolize racism returning despite the brutality.
(Lee 56). • Nut grass is allelopathic (meaning it releases toxins to surrounding plants). Similarly, rumors and gossip, which spread rapidly throughout Maycomb, are harmful to those the rumors are about. Miss Maudie, who loathes nut grass, also loathes rumors, and is quick to stop the both spread of nut grass and of any gossip she hears, like when Miss. Maudie calls out Miss.
The poet, Lascelles Abercrombie once said, “There is only one thing which can master the perplexed stuff of epic material into unity; and that is, an ability to see in particular human experience some significant symbolism of man 's general destiny.”. He talked about how powerful of a tool symbolism is and how it is the only thing that can truly define a highly complex ‘destiny’ or series of events. Symbolism is something that is found throughout Harper Lee’s book, To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee shows the reader that racism is a product of society,she portrays the matter through her symbolism of the mad dog, the birds and the bugs.
Imagery and Symbolism Edith Wharton creates the novel with a high percentage of imagery and symbolism in one. Some ways she combines both imagery and symbolism together is by a flower. Wharton states, “He had never seen any as sun-golden before, and his first impulse was to send them to May instead of the lilies. But they did not look like her - there was something too rich, too strong, in their fiery beauty”(Wharton).
Although young boys aren't usually associated with flowers, after killing his neighbor, Mrs. Dubose’s, flowers in a fit of rage, she gifted him a white camellia, a symbolic transfer. According to the web blog ”Fresh Trimmings,” “White camellias symbolize purity and innocence.” The gift of the perfect white Camellia from Mrs. Dubose to Jem represents a transfer of the strength needed to face adversity and the purity of heart needed for Jem
The symbol of the white camellia is used to reveal escaping from grudges, and having forgiveness. In To Kill a Mockingbird (pg.111-112 P.15), Jem is really angry because he thought that Mrs. Dubose, the lady in which he destroyed her camellias in anger, was trying to taunt him. Atticus says, “I think that was her way of telling you – everything’s all right now, Jem, everything’s all right.” The white camellia that Mrs. Dubose sent Jem after she died was a symbol of her grudge and anger against, Jem, for ruining her camellias, had escaped her. She had forgiven Jem.
She uses symbolism to express how Miss Strangeworth compares the people like her roses but treats them differently in a cruel way. For example, on page 1,“Miss Strangeworth never gave away any of her roses, although the tourists often asked her. The roses belonged on Pleasant Street, and it bothered Miss Strangeworth to think of people wanting to carry them away, to take them into strange towns and down strange streets.” In other words The roses are the symbol that represents the story.
In her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee masterfully uses the symbolic significance of the Mad Dog, White Camellias, and Mockingbird to foreshadow events that occur later in the novel. To begin, Lee uses the Mad Dog
Dubose as a symbol to foreshadow Jem rejecting white supremacy. In chapter eleven Jem is gifted a box of white camellias after Mrs. Dubose’s death. She gave the flowers to him because Jem helped Mrs. Dubose battle her morphine addiction by reading to her after school in her final days. When Jem receives the flowers Scout describes, “Jem opened the box. Inside, surrounded by wads of damp cotton, was a white, waxy, perfect camellia.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Mrs. Dubose has a bush of camellias in her yard. These flowers represent racism and prejudice towards black people in Macomb County. She refers to her flowers as “Snow-on-the-Mountain” that have white petals. The white petals show favoritism towards the white people in Maycomb County. In Chapter 11, Jem cuts down all the flowers with Scout’s baton.
Lee’s usage of the azalea show readers Maudie 's compassionate and understanding personality, while the white camellias to were used to show Mrs. Dubose 's innocence and discriminatory
Symbolism is used by many authors to convey a specific message that carries a deep meaning. In Harper lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the primary symbol is the Mockingbird. There are numerous references to the mockingbird in the novel, which can be seen through some of the characters. The allusion of the mockingbird is used to represent the idea of innocence.