Literary Elements Of Diction In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

Register to read the introduction… Seeing as the entire story is told from a child’s point of view, the diction is formed in a way that is both innocent and understanding. For example, during the trial of Tom Robinson, an innocent black man wrongly accused of rape, Harper Lee writes in a way that explains the trial, along with a clear view of Atticus’s points and inner feelings, yet also creates a sense of innocence for Scout, as she cannot understand much of the things that Atticus and the witnesses are talking about. Another part of the story where Scout’s diction is used to show inner good and evil is when Atticus is defending the town jail from a lynch mob of farmers. When Scout and Jim break through the crowd to intervene, Scout’s understanding and diction as a kid highlight the men’s inner conscious and convinces them to leave. Through this and other parts of the story, Scout’s child-like diction shows hints through the storytelling of the other character’s inner good and …show more content…
Like diction, Harper Lee uses this literary element as a way to show a childlike view of larger, more complicated events that involve the coexistence of good and evil. Throughout the plot, Scout is shown to struggle between what she knows is right and good and what other people do that is the “right thing”. This is extremely evident and related to the overall feeling towards people and different races in the South at the time. The way Scout’s first person view is written to show the different characters and townsfolk within Maycomb County is used by Harper Lee as a way to indirectly show to readers how good and evil can coexist within a person. For example, in the courthouse, Scout says “As Tom Robinson was giving his testimony, it came to me that Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world.” She says this to point out how she is accepted by neither white people nor black people because of her social standing. This also gives an explanation to why she tried to do what she did, and why she wants to lie to cover it up, and gives a good example how good and evil can be inside the same person. Because Harper Lee writes using a first person view, events and the character’s thoughts are more personal to the reader, and this helps when Harper Lee uses this writing element as a way to show the coexistence of good and …show more content…
She puts this theme in To Kill a Mockingbird as a message to readers about how good people can do bad things, and how good and evil are both part of the human condition and part of being a person. Even though this is true, she also uses this as a message to readers indirectly telling them to use the good inside themselves, like Atticus or Scout, and help others when they need