To Kill A Mockingbird Reference Explanation Essay

Reference Explanation
The Title To Kill A Mockingbird It is not immediately obvious as to what this means. The birds themselves are not harmful and only eat insects and berries. Charles Darwin used them in his research to prove the idea of evolution

‘When he was nearly thirteen my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow’ p.3 Foreshadowing. The incident in which Jem breaks his arm is obviously going to be important to the novel because it is mentioned here at the very beginning. We are not told at this point how this happens, but we will obviously be looking out for the incident. Over the couple of paragraphs following this, the question of who started it is discussed; that there are so many options is another indication as to how significant the

‘Dill gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out’ p.9 This has already been mentioned back in the section about how Jem broke his arm. Two mentions in the first chapter seem to indicate that this is important. Who is Boo Radley? Where do they want him to come out from?
‘It was all right to shut him up, Mr Radley conceded, but insisted that Boo not be charged with anything: he was not a criminal’ p.12 Boo has been shut inside for 20 years, the stories about him are greatly exaggerated, for example Jem’s description of him ‘judging from his tracks’ p.14. Having been kept inside for that long it would not be surprising to find that he suffers from anxiety when in company.
‘Dill left us in early September to return to Meridian’ p.17 Dill is only with them outside of school term times. In a sense he becomes a means within the plot to allow Jem and Scout to communicate information to the reader which they otherwise would not need to verbalise. However, he is also an instigator of action, it is he who pushes for the outing of Boo