To Kill A Mockingbird Response Essay

Leah Zanin

Literature 8A

3/8/18

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Grand Central, 1982

To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee. It is about Scout, a six year old girl, who lives in Maycomb, Alabama, during the 1930’s. The book talks about how Scout learns about racism and the importance of being accepting of all people. To Kill a Mockingbird teaches to walk in somebody else’s shoes and to not judge a book by its cover.

To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Maycomb County, Alabama, during the Great Depression. Maycomb is a small town, where everyone knows each other. It was “twenty miles east of Finch’s Landing’’(5). Summers in Maycomb were always really hot. It was so bad, that “a black dog suffered’’,and “Men’s stiff

Everyone in Maycomb County all judged Boo by what they heard and by what they saw. Scout learns at the end of the book that Boo actually is nice and not as bad as people say. She said “‘he hadn’t done any of those things... Atticus, he was real nice’” (376). In this book, people also judged Tom and all the black people. They judged them only on how they looked.

There are many important symbols in To Kill a Mockingbird. The most obvious one is a mockingbird. It symbolizes the innocence of some of the characters. Tom, Boo, Scout, Jem, even Mayella could be symbolized as mockingbirds. Atticus even said in the book “‘it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird’” (119).

Another symbol is the Radley tree. This tree symbolizes the relationship between Boo Radley and the kids. Boo would place gifts for the kids throughout the year. It was like their way of communicating. The tree’s “roots reached out into the side-road and made it bumpy’’ (44). Scout originally found gum in the tree. It “was sticking in a knot-hole’’ (44).

The last symbol is the courthouse. This represents the case between Mayella and Tom. The courthouse is “reminiscent of Arlington in one respect’’