Use of Symbols and Symbolism in To Kill A Mockingbird :: Kill Mockingbird essays

Use of Symbolism in To assassinate a Mockingbird     Harper Lee effectively uses symbolism throughout her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.  Jems nursing of the flowers denotes his endurance that he nurses in order to be able to tolerate peoples criticism of his family, especially of his father. He was forced to establish care of the camelias just as he was forced to live with anger, humiliation and a big question mark in his young nitty-gritty about the workings of grownups. Atticus never thought Jemd be the peerless to lose his head over this (110). However Jem did lose his head and now he has to remark the strength to control his emotions in order to avoid further trouble. This courage was hard to find but Mrs Dubose did find it and managed to break herself from morphine originally she died. She also made sure Jem got a white covery camellia she had prepared for him. The waxy camellia, the Snow-on-the-Mountain (118), could be a symbol of courage. She built her spirit little by little just as when she was making the camellia. Now it is Jems turn to build his own. And as the camellia out of wax does not wither, in the same sense, true courage may be hard to build, but once built, it never leaves you.             Mrs Duboses camellias are not the unless flowers that can be seen symbolically. Mayella Ewells red geraniums also carry an important meaning. During the Robinson running play the reader is given a description of the Ewells property. It is said that what passed for a border was bits of tree-limbs , broomsticks and tool shafts, all tipped with rusty hammer-heads, snaggle-toothed rake heads, shovels, axes and grubbing hoes, held on with pieces of mordacious wire. Enclosed by this barricade was a dirty yard containing the cadaver of a Model-T Ford, a discarded dentists chair, an ancient ice-box, plus lesser items nonagenarian shoes, worn-out table radios, picture frames, and fruit jars, under which scrawny chromatic chickens pecked hopefully. (176) The general picture one acquires by this description is that of a small dump, a place totally disordered like the playhouse of an insane child (176). One can easily guess the social station of the people who lived there. However, against the fence, in a line, were six chipped-enamel slop jars holding brainy red geraniums, cared for as tenderly as if they belonged to Miss Maudie Atkinson.