Statement of intent: The particular purpose for this idea is to portray the idea of racial discrimination. The author, Harper Lee, expresses this purpose through the use of symbolism in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
In the Pullitzer award-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee helped me understand an idea about the people who lived in the rural ‘tired old town’ of Maycomb where the novel was set. This idea is the idea of racial prejudice also known as narrow-mindedness; very common in areas like Maycomb where it is a part of Confederate States of America. Confederate States also known as ‘confederacy’ are the most resistant to abolish slavery. Although Maycomb is a fictitious town, it is set in Lee’s hometown in Monroeville, Alabama. The plot and characters in the novel are loosely based on Lee’s observations of her family and neighbours, as well as an event that took place near her hometown in 1936, when she was 10 years old. The story was told through the eyes of young and naive Scout Finch (Lee) where she reports more than she understands and her vocabulary was a mixture of a child’s and an adult’s. The idea of narrow-mindedness of some people also known as racial prejudice in the 1930’s when system of segregation was in force where blacks and whites were forbidden by law to mix in schools, in movie theatres, or in trains was developed through Lee’s use of symbolism. These include the mockingbird which represents innocence, snowman which represents unity and the house fire which represents moral outrage. These symbolisms link to racial prejudice which is the cause of people’s narrow-mindedness.
‘Mockingbirds are creatures of innocence. They make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs. They sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.’ This quote parallels with Tom Robinson. With his crippled hand symbolises the crippled powerlessness of the black society. He was accused of...