Amelia Cox
Vande Guchte
Honors English 10
5/11/23
To Kill a Mockingbird Foreshadowing
Harper Lee’s father was a lawyer involved in the Scottsboro Boys trial. She grew up while he dealt with a case of white women falsely accusing Black boys of rape. As an adult, she wrote To Kill A Mockingbird, a story greatly inspired by her childhood. Throughout the book, she uses symbolism to foreshadow what is to come. She uses the mad dog, the mockingbird, even changes in the weather to foreshadow the coming events. Early on in the book, the main character, Scout, spots a dog coming down the street. It’s acting very strangely. The family’s helper, Calpurnia, gets on the phone saying, “This is Cal. I swear to God there’s a mad dog down the street a
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The characters in the book directly tell us that a mockingbird represents innocence when Miss Maudie says, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (Lee 119). Mockingbirds have done nothing wrong, nothing to bother people, they “don’t do one thing but make music”, so when one is killed, it’s the same as killing an innocent. The death of an innocent is foreshadowed in the title of the book–To Kill A Mockingbird. As the story continues, we learn that Tom Robinson is the innocent who is killed. After his trial, he is to be put to death by an electric chair, but Atticus is trying to get an appeal for him where they can prove his innocence and save his life. Before this is possible, however, Atticus comes home and tells his sister, Alexandra, Calpurnia, and Scout that Tom has been killed. He says, “He was running. It was during their exercise period. They said he just broke into a blind raving charge at the fence and started climbing over. Right in front of them–” After being interrupted, he says, “Oh yes, the guards called to him to stop. They fired a few shots in the air, then to kill. They got him just as he went over the fence. They said if he’d had two good arms he would have …show more content…
Jem and Scout were walking to the high school for Scout to be a part of a Maycomb County pageant. She was dressed as a ham made out of chicken wire because the children in the pageant represented the economic and agricultural products from Maycomb. Carefully, they walked through the dark as Scout narrates, “The weather was unusually warm for the last day of October. We didn’t even need jackets. The wind was growing stronger, and Jem said it might be raining before we got home. There was no moon.” (Lee 341). The “unusually warm” night and strong winds foreshadowed the huge change in the plot that was about to happen. As they walked home in the dark after the pageant, Jem kept hearing footsteps behind them. After hiding and listening to the footsteps, they were attacked by Bob Ewell. It was pitch black and Scout could hardly see what was going on. After it was all over, Scout was back home, Jem was asleep with his arm broken by Bob, and Bob was dead under a tree, the sheriff finds Scout’s ham costume. Examining it, he says, “‘This probably saved her life,’ he said, ‘Look.’ He pointed with a long forefinger. A shiny clean line stood out on the dull wire. ‘Bob Ewell meant business,’ Mr. Tate muttered.” (Lee 360). Scout’s ham costume was made out of chicken wire, which made it impossible for Bob to get to her with his knife. Based on the cuts in the costume, the characters realize that Bob had
Many of the townsfolk viewed him as an evil or mean spirited person. An instance of him being a mockingbird is first seen when Boo begins to put things in the hole of a tree for Jem and Scout to have until it gets filled with cement (44-45). Another example is when Boo puts a blanket around Scout while she is watching the fire at Miss Maudie's house and Scout does not even notice (94-95). The last and biggest act takes place while Scout and Jem are walking home from the play and they are attacked by Bob Ewell. Then to save them Boo stabs Bob
36. Scout was ham in the pageant, and she acted like a ham. 37. Scout wears her costume home, because she was embarrassed. 38.
On the walk back home, Jem heard noises behind him and Scout. They thought that must be Cecil Jacobs. Suddenly, someone rushed to them. Jem started to fight against, and ask Scout to go. Finally, Jem’s arm got seriously hurt, and the person began plaining to attack Scout.
Chapter,28 pp 342-357: Scout and Jem are walking home from a Halloween pageant when suddenly they get attacked by a man. They get away and run home as fast as they could. Jem is hurt but they find out that the man who attacked him was Bob Ewell and was found dead with a knife in him. 19. Chapter, 29 pp 358-362
Bob Ewell had attacked Jem and Scout while they were walking home and Boo saw that his friends were helpless so he went to help them. Jem was already on the ground when Boo came to help and Scout couldn’t help because she couldn’t see anything due to her costume. Boo had stabbed Bob Ewell with a knife and had killed him to help his friends. Boo then had grabbed Jem and carried him to his home so he could be taken care of. Then when Sheriff Tate had investigated how Bob Ewell had gotten stabbed by Boo, but he didn’t arrest him because Boo did that to help Jem and Scout avoid death and instead said Bob Ewell had sat on his knife.
“In the corner of the room was a brass bed, and in the bed was Mrs. Dubose. I wondered if Jems activities had put her there and for a moment I felt sorry for her.” The reason why Jem and Scout were at Mrs. Dubose’s house, was because Jem and Scout were walking by her house when Dubose started yelling at the kids saying that Atticus is not any better than the “niggers and trash he works for.” Jem lost his temper and takes Scouts baton he bought for her and snaps it in half. Jem destroys all of
Lee is no stranger to using foreshadowing, as in her novel To Kill A Mockingbird, she uses the death of a mad dog,
He managed to make a small step in the right direction of getting the Jury to see Tom as innocent. He did this by giving them enough to think about to keep them out of the court for 4 hours even though they still saw him as guilty. This quote proves innocence is killed because charging Tom with this is going to kill his own innocence as well as many others. Both of these quotes tie together because Atticus is stopping and trying to stop Racism from ruining
Jem and Scout have been attacked by Bob Ewell and has caused Jem to break his arm. Atticus asked Scout, “‘Scout, Mr.Ewell fell on his own knife. Can you possibly understand?’” Scout responded, “‘Well, it’d be like sorta shooting a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?’” (Page 370).
Later Scout asks Mrs. Maudie, the Finch's next-door neighbor, about what Atticus said and she explains, “Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us” (Lee 103). This means mockingbirds directly symbolize innocents, when Mrs. Maudie says they don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs she means they don't do anything wrong. So it would be a sin to kill something or someone that is innocent. Later in the book after Tom Robinson is found guilty even though Atticus proves his innocence beyond responsible doubt and it is shown to the courtroom that Bob Ewell is the true perpetrator.
Although all the evidence pointed to Tom Robinson being innocent and the only witnesses were from unreliable and changing sources he was still convicted. This is a depiction of the death of a Mockingbird, ultimately destroying innocence and purity that resided with Tom Robinson that died when he was shot as he tried to flee from his inescapable doom. Mr. Underwood, the publisher of Maycomb 's newspaper as well as a respected all of Atticus, sadly compares Tom 's death to “the senseless slaughter of songbirds...” (pg.244) stating another reference to the ever-present mockingbird
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee the term mockingbird symbolizes innocence in a person. In the novel it focuses on the fact that innocence, represented by the mockingbird, can be wrongfully harmed. There are two characters: Tom Robinson and Arthur “Boo” Radley that are supposed to represent the mockingbird. In the novel, Tom Robinson is the best example of a mockingbird because he is prosecuted for a crime he did not commit. Also, he was judged unfairly based on the color of his skin in his trial.
Scout then began to realize that the town of Maycomb isn’t what she had it out to be. Evil things happen, moreover, people have numerous sides to themselves. Ultimately, Scout becomes a mature, young adult with
The author demonstrates the problems in the school systems when Scout enters school she is reprimanded by her teacher, Mrs. Honeycomb for reading proficiently. She is commanded to “tell [her] father not to teach [her] anymore” and stop reading outside of school. Lee’s incongruity of the situation alerts her readers to the flaws within the school system. Lee satirizes the church when Scout and Jem are taken to church by Calpurnia, their black housekeeper, when the children’s father is unavailable. At this Christian church, the children are ridiculed for being white.
In the story, the innocents are destroyed by evil, the “mockingbird” comes to represent the idea of innocence. Thus, to kill a mockingbird is to destroy innocence. Such as when Atticus says “Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit'em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (103). Another example could be when Boo stabs Bob Ewell to save Jem and Scout, which sheriff Tate decides to say that Mr.Ewell fell on the knife, so Boo won’t have to go to court.