Resource 3.14 Analyzing Symbols in To Kill a Mockingbird

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1 Resource 3.14 Analyzing Symbols in To Kill a Mockingbird Directions: For each of the following symbols, provide an illustration, two quotations, and an explanation of who or what the symbol represents. Miss Maudie s Nut Grass (Chapter 5) If she found a blade of nut grass in her yard it was like the Second Battle of the Marne: she swooped down upon it with a tin tub and subjected it to blasts from beneath with a poisonous substance she said was so powerful it d kill us all if we didn t stand out of the way (42). Why can t you just pull it up?... Why, one sprig of nut grass can ruin a whole yard. Look here. When it comes fall this dries up and the wind blows it all over Maycomb County (42). The Mockingbird (Chapter 10) Remember it s a sin to kill a mockingbird. That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it. Your father s right, she said. Mockingbirds don t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy... but sing their hearts out for us. That s why it s a sin to kill a mockingbird (90). 97

2 Tim Johnson, the Mad Dog... I hope and pray I can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness, and most of all, without catching Maycomb s usual disease. Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I don t pretend to understand (88). Resource

3 Resource 3.14A Analyzing Symbols in To Kill a Mockingbird Directions: For each of the following symbols, provide an illustration, two quotations, and an explanation of who or what the symbol represents. Miss Maudie s Nut Grass (Chapter 5) The Mockingbird (Chapter 10) 99

4 Resource 3.14A Tim Johnson, the Mad Dog 100

5 Resource 3.14B Analyzing Symbols in To Kill a Mockingbird Directions: For each of the following symbols, provide an illustration, two quotations, and an explanation of who or what the symbol represents. Miss Maudie s Nut Grass (Chapter 5) The Mockingbird If she found a blade of nut grass in her yard it was like the Second Battle of the Marne: she swooped down upon it with a tin tub and subjected it to blasts from beneath with a poisonous substance she said was so powerful it d kill us all if we didn t stand out of the way (42). Why can t you just pull it up?... Why, one sprig of nut grass can ruin a whole yard. Look here. When it comes fall this dries up and the wind blows it all over Maycomb County (42). Remember it s a sin to kill a mockingbird. That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it. Your father s right, she said. Mockingbirds don t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy... but sing their hearts out for us. That s why it s a sin to kill a mockingbird (90). Miss Maudie's nutgrass is symbolic of her belief that racism must be eliminated by its roots. When it comes to her garden (and to her baking, especially her beloved Lane Cake), Miss Maudie is a perfectionist. Part of the beauty of her plants comes with the loving attention that she shows them. She knows that the nutgrass cannot be eradicated simply by "pulling them up"; like the racism rampant in Maycomb, it must be destroyed at its origins. She worries about her plants on the day of the unseasonal snow that hits Maycomb, and she shows more concern about their possible demise than that of her house after it burns. She loved everything that grew in God's earth... and that extended to people. The title of To Kill a Mockingbird has very little literal connection to the plot, but it carries a great deal of symbolic weight in the book. In this story of innocents destroyed by evil, the mockingbird comes to represent the idea of innocence. Thus, to kill a mockingbird is to destroy innocence. Throughout the book, a number of characters (Jem, Tom Robinson, Dill, Boo Radley, Mr. Raymond) can be identified as mockingbirds innocents who have been injured or destroyed through contact with evil. This connection between the novel s title and its main theme is made explicit several times in the novel: after Tom Robinson is shot, Mr. Underwood compares his death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds, and at the end of the book Scout thinks that hurting Boo Radley would be like shootin a mockingbird. Most important, Miss Maudie explains to Scout: Mockingbirds don t do one thing but... sing their hearts out for us. That s why it s a sin to kill a mockingbird. That Jem and Scout s last name is Finch (another type of small bird) indicates that they are particularly vulnerable in the racist world of Maycomb, which often treats 101

6 Resource 3.14B the fragile innocence of childhood harshly. Tim Johnson, the Mad Dog... I hope and pray I can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness, and most of all, without catching Maycomb s usual disease. Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I don t pretend to understand (88). It may seem odd to give an animal the last name of the family it belongs to, but it s apparently common practice in Maycomb Judge Taylor s pooch gets the same treatment. But more interestingly, it allows the dog s name to sound suspiciously like that of another character. Tim Johnson Tom Robinson? Coincidence? Perhaps. But Scout s memory of her father shooting the dog does pop up more than once in situations involving Tom, and doesn t get mentioned otherwise. For example, after Scout turns away the lynch mob, her memory of Atticus in front of the jail merges with her memory of him shooting the dog. I was very tired, and was drifting into sleep when the memory of Atticus calmly folding his newspaper and pushing back his hat became Atticus standing in the middle of an empty waiting street, pushing up his glasses. The full meaning of the night's events hit me and I began crying. (16.3) But why does Scout associate the two images? Perhaps they re both examples of Atticus doing tough things he doesn t want to do. Or of Atticus facing off with a mindless threat. (He does later refer to the men in the lynch mob as "animals" [16.22]). More 102

7 Creating Your Own Symbol Resource 3.15 On the lines below, write down something in your world that bothers you, particularly something that you find unjust. What is an object you could use to represent, or symbolize, this injustice? (Use Atticus s saying as a model: It s a sin to kill a mockingbird. ) Now, complete the sentence frame to create your own saying: It s a sin to. In the space below, provide an illustration of your symbol. 103