Explain the role of symbolism in the novel. Choose two symbols and discuss how it helps to develop themes and characters. Cite textual evidence to support your response. 250 words.
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2019-2020 English I Honors 
The first symbol I chose was the symbol of the Mockingbird. The mockingbird represents innocence in the novel. Scout is a Mockingbird because she is innocent at the beginning, but then she is influenced by violence and fighting. The text states,”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.”
The second symbol i chose was the symbol of the camellia. It rep;resents forgiveness. Jem ripped up Mrs. Dubose’s flowers, so she made him read to her. Her way of saying she forgave him, was giving him a camellia before she died. The text states,”Jem opened the box. Inside, surrounded by wads of damp cotton, was a white, waxy, perfect camellia. It was Snow-on-the-Mountain…’I think it’s her way of telling you-everything’s all right now, Jem, everything’s all right.”
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Symbolism in the novel helps the reader to better understand the themes. One symbol I chose is the mockingbird. The text says, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” This piece of evidence describes the innocence of the mockingbird by explaining that all they do is sing, unlike many other birds. Therefore, the symbol of the mockingbird represents the theme of innocence, and to kill innocence you expose it to evil. Another symbol I chose is nut grass. The text states, “One spring… ruin a whole yard.” It also says, “…blows it all over Maycomb.” These pieces of evidence describe how nut grass can be ruined by one spring, and wind blows nut grass seeds, and spreads it all over the town. Therefore, the symbol of the nut grass represents the theme of racism and its power to destroy a community or person. These symbols help to develop themes and characters, because characters like Atticus use these symbols to teach these themes to characters like Scout, and to someone who doesn’t pay close attention to these symbols may think the author is just talking about nut grass, but the deeper meaning teaches the readers about racism and how one person can spread the idea to everyone else. Therefore, two symbols like the mockingbird and nut grass represent important themes in the novel, and help to develop characters such as Scout, and themes such as racism and innocence.
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One symbol I choose was the Mockingbird. In the novel, the Mockingbird represents innocence and the only way to make something not innocent is to introduce it to bad things like prejudice, hatred, racism, and violence. Scout is like a Mockingbird at the beginning of the book because she is innocent, but then she gets involved in fights because she is exposed with the hatred people feel about her father. The text states: “ Uncle Atticus is a nigger-lover we’ll never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb again.” This is one of the examples where Scout was exposed to hatred. Another symbol I chose was the nut grass. In the novel, nut grass represents racism and its power to destroy a community. The nut grass is like how people see African Americans. In the text it says: “ Why, one spring of nut grass can ruin a whole yard… this dries up and the wind blows it all over Maycomb.” In the text it also says: “Your father’s no better than the niggers and trash he works for!” This shows that some people believed the African Americans were not equal to white people, so when Scout’s father started defending an African American the whole town turned against him and his children got in trouble for supporting. This demonstrates that one little thing can mess up a whole community like one little blade of nut grass can ruin a whole garden (as Miss Maudie says).
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One symbol I decided to choose from To Kill a Mockingbird is the mockingbird. In the novel, this represents innocence. In the novel, it says, “‘Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.’” In this quote, it shows and represents a theme of how destroying innocence with evil is wrong. Innocence, like mockingbirds, affects no one, everyone was at some point innocent. Then, as time goes on, we slowly lose it with hatred and evil. A sin to kill innocence like it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. Another symbol I chose is Miss Maudie’s Nut Grass which represents racism. It says, “‘ One stig… ruins a whole yard…blows it all over Maycomb.’” In this quote, while it may be talking about a weed, it really represents the growing racism in Maycomb and how it’s destroying the community. While a weed destroys a garden, racism is destroying a town and all of the people in it. One person is racist then it spreads and spreads and spreads, until it’s affecting the whole town. That’s what Harper Lee is trying to get across in her symbolism with the mockingbird and the weeds. She is trying to show the loss of innocence and the disease of racism in Maycomb and how it affects all of the characters, like Scout, in the novel.
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In the novel one symbol is the mockingbird. In the novel the mockingbird represents innocence. For example, chapter 10 states on page 103, “ It’s a sin to kill a Mockingbird… Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why its a sin to kill a mockingbird. ” In this evidence you can see that the mockingbird is just a harmless little creature. They don’t cause any harm to anyone, in fact they make music for our ears to enjoy. This can be related to the innocence idea because innocence is innocent until you expose it to evil. Another symbol in the novel is Miss Maudie’s Nut Grass. This symbol is seen to represent the theme of racism and its power to destroy a community or person. In chapter 5 it states, “ One sprig… ruin and whole yard.” It also states, “ When it comes fall this dries up and the wind blows it all over Maycomb.” The nut grass is a weed that can kill all of the plants in the area it spreads in. The grass is like racism, it can kill a person emotionally. Additionally, saying that the grass spreads over Maycomb is showing exactly how racism has the power to destroy an ENTIRE community.
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One symbol that I saw in ” To Kill A Mockingbird” was the symbol of the Mockingbird. The mockingbird represents innocence in the novel. Scout is like a Mockingbird because she is innocent at the beginning, but then towards the end, she is influenced by violence and fighting which made her more experienced with evilness. The novel states,”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.” This quote gives an example of what Scout was before she got influenced with evilness. Another symbol that I saw in the novel was the symbol of the camellia. It represents forgiveness. Jem ripped up Mrs. Dubose’s flowers, so she made him read to her. Her way of saying she forgave him, was giving him a camellia before she died. The text states,”Jem opened the box. Inside, surrounded by wads of damp cotton, was a white, waxy, perfect camellia. It was Snow-on-the-Mountain…’I think it’s her way of telling you-everything’s all right now, Jem, everything’s all right.”
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There are many different symbols in the story “To Kill A Mockingbird” and they represent different things. The first symbol I chose is the mockingbird. The mockingbird in the story represents innocence and how it is bad to take away someone’s innocence. The text states, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” This shows how the mockingbird expresses the meaning of innocence because they don’t do anything wrong and there is no point in killing them. The next symbol in the story is the nut grass. It represents how racism should be eliminated at the roots. The text states, “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” This shows that if someone discriminates one person it will make others do it too then it will get out of control. So you shouldn’t discriminate someone based on the color of their skin. It can make others think the same way and it can ruin a whole town with hatred for other races. In the book it means they have to be fair during the trial and it would be wrong to say that Tom Robinson is guilty without good evidence.
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One use of symbolism in To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most commonly used symbol but it is a huge pat in understanding the story, this symbol would be the mockingbirds. In the book Atticus says “ shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘ em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a Mockingbird… Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us, that’s why it’s a sin to kill a Mockingbird”. In this quote the mockingbirds represent innocence. So when you kill a Mockingbird, it really means you’re killing someone’s innocence. We see many different examples of this throughout the book. One of the main ones is scout. Over Her innocence is killed by the trial and what she has to go through and what she learns affects her character forcing her to grow up before she should have to.
Another symbol in the book is the blue jays. If we look at the same quote above to reference, the blue jays represent the racist people in maycomb. This is because he says you can shoot them all you want, hinting that you don’t want them around. This also means if you can shoot them that there is a lot of them referencing that there is a lot of racist in maycomb . This is a big part of the story because during the trial atticus has to go against the whole twon (which is racist to defend a black man). This is also a reference to scout who “shoots down” the racist to defend her dad.
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there are lots of different symbols in the novel “To Kill A Mockingbird”. One of the symbols I chose was mockingbirds. The text states ” shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit’ em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a Mockingbird… Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy….. they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us that’s why its a sin to kill a Mockingbird” mockingbirds represent innocence.these creatures don’t do any harm or damage until you expose the evil.
the next symbol that I chose to talk about is a camellia. the text states “i think its her way of telling you everythings all right now Jem everythings all right. Jem ripped up mrs duboses flowers so she made him read to her. her way of saying she forgave him was giving him a camellia before she died. – felicity gibson
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One symbol that can be interpreted through the novel is the symbol of the mockingbird. In the text it says,”Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” Obviously from this quote we can tell that the mockingbird is a symbol of innocents, and that since it hasn’t done anything wrong there is no good reason to kill it. The second symbol that I choose was the crabgrass. In the book it says,”If she found a blade of nutgrass in her yard it was like the second battle of the Marne: she would swoop down upon it and blast it with weed killer.” Alss in the text it says,”One sprig of nutgrass can ruin a whole yard, when it comes to fall it all dries up and it blows all over Maycomb.” This can be the symbol to represent evil in Maycomb. It can represent that evil is very dangerous and that can spread very easily. Another thing that the crab grass could represent is racism. Deeper into the book racism becomes a very big topic and the crab grass cold represent how people being prejudice against blacks can spread very easily. This connection can be related with how Miss Maudie believes that the only way to kill the weed entirely is to pull it up by the roots, it means they in Maycomb need to attack racism at the roots.
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Symbolism helps the reader indicate the themes. One of the two symbols I chose was the Mockingbird. The Mockingbird represents innocence, and to make it evil you have to introduce it to evil such as racism, hatred, and violence. In the novel, Scout is like a Mockingbird. In the beginning, she is innocent, but then she feels the hatred of how people feel about her father, so she gets involved in fights and things like that. The novel states “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” This quote shows that negativity tends to overpower positivity, and that is wrong. At one point, we were innocent. But, we eventually get introduced to negativity and hatred. The second symbol I chose is the nut grass. It represents racism and how it should be banished. The text states “Why, one sprig of nut grass can ruin a whole yard. Look here. When it becomes fall this dries up and the wind blows it all over Maycomb County.” This quote shows that people can be followers, so if one person is discriminating, everyone else might follow along, and discriminate as well. The grass is like racism, it can ruin a community, as a whole.
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The first symbol I chose is the symbol of the mockingbird. In the novel the mockingbird represents innocence. For example, in the novel it states,” It’s a sin to kill a Mockingbird… Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” This evidence from the text shows that the mockingbird does nothing wrong and it actually does good. So the mockingbird represents innocence but the only way to kill innocence is to introduce it to bad things. So if it is a sin to kill a Mockingbird it is a sin to kill innocence. The second symbol I chose was Miss Maudie’s nut grass which represents racism and its power to destroy a community or person. In the novel it says,”Why, one sprig of nut grass can ruin a whole yard. Look here. When it comes to fall this dries up and the wind blows it all over Maycomb County” So if her nut grass represents racism then if on person was to discriminate another it will spread and others will do the same and it will start to destroy a person or community. The symbolism in a novel role is to express different themes throughout the novel and providing a way to look at them.
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The first symbol I chose is the symbol of the mockingbird. In the novel the mockingbird represents innocence. In the text it says,”Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” This shows that it is a symbol of innocents because it does not do anything to anyone or a person at all, this makes it innocent. Another symbol I chose was the nut grass in the text it says, “one sprig of nut grass can ruin a whole yard. Look here. When it comes to fall this dries up and the wind blows it all over Maycomb County” this shows for me the symbol of racism and how it spreads from one person who is and he convinces everyone that the other side is worse than them. The role of symbolism in a novel is to show different analogies about items to make it meaningful.
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Symbolism in ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ helps the reader understand underlying truths described and it develops the theme. A symbol I chose was Miss Maudie’s Nut Grass which represents racism. The text says, “Why, one sprig of nut grass can ruin a whole yard…this dries up and the wind blows it all over Maycomb.” This shows that people, like weeds can be followers. people can be quickly influenced by one person’s opinions then everyone shares the same opinion. So when someone disapproves of someone because of their skin color others follow along so they weren’t outcasts. Another symbol i chose is the mockingbird, and it represents innocence. The text says, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” this shows that the mockingbird is innocence because it can’t do anything harmful and brings joy to everyone around.
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Symbol one is the mockingbird that represents innocence. In the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” Scout is a mocking bird because she is innocent and doesn’t yet understand the problems in the world like the discrimination against African Americans. The way you make something innocent, not any more, is by introducing it to hate and violence, like what happens to scout in the book where she get influenced by the hatred and fighting. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” this show the mockingbirds represent innocence, because they are no harm to anyone or anything, all they do is sing and make music. Another Symbol is the nut grass. “One spring… ruin a whole yard.” and “…blows it all over Maycomb.” this shows that racism was coming and spreading around Maycomb, ruining the relationships with people and friends. That if you don’t take care of this discrimination it will only spread.
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The first symbol I chose was the symbol of the Mockingbird. The mockingbird represents innocence in the novel. The text states,“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” This shows that killing innocence and corrupting it is a sin because it causes the pure to darken with influence of violence and lies. Scout represents the Mockingbird because she is innocent at the beginning, but then she is influenced by violence and fighting. Another symbol I chose was the nut grass. The text states, “One spring… ruin a whole yard.” The text also says, “…blows it all over Maycomb.” These pieces of evidence describe how nut grass can be spread when the wind blows nut grass seeds, and it goes all over Maycomb. The nut grass represents racism and its power to destroy a community or person because it spreads and causes communities and people to fall under its ideas and influence. ~Savannah
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