This novel is set in the great depression time period, 1930-1940, and takes place in a town called Maycomb county. Maycomb is located in Alabama and is a very poor town. This makes Maycomb a very racist community that is also very segregated. This book describes a court case in which a black man named tom Robinson is being falsely accused of raping a white woman named Mayella Ewell. The importance of the book is that Atticus Finch, a white man, defends Tom as his attorney. In her Novel, to kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee foreshadows a loss of innocence through the symbolic significance of fire, the white camellia, and a mockingbird. First, Harper Lee uses fire to foreshadow a loss of innocence. Fire is a physical representation of destruction,
…show more content…
The constant trend throughout this book is the symbolic meaning of white. White as Harper Lee symbolizes it is the physical representation of innocence, so naturally a white flower would represent innocence. So this means that any type of destruction of white would represent the destruction of innocence. In this case the White Camelia flowers being brutally murdered by Jem, as narrated by Scout, “He did not begin to calm down until he had cut the tops off every camelia bush.” (137) represent two things. First off this shows Jems loss of innocence, the book starts off with Jem being a 10 year old kid who is afraid of the “haunted radley house” and ends as it continues we see through Scout's eyes the process of Jem maturing, and with becoming mature comes the loss of your innocence. The Tom Robinson case is Jem’s loss of innocence the case makes Jem open his eyes to the real world and see how bad it truly is. This is symbolized by Jem destroying the White flowers. The second thing this symbolizes is the outcome of the case itself. By Jem destroying the white flowers it symbolizes a loss or destruction of innocence, and this can be said to be the same result of the outcome of the Tom Robinson case, a loss of innocence. Tom Robinson while in jail is trying to “escape” and is killed as Atticus describe, “ Seventeen bullet holes in him.” (315) this is the loss of innocence as Tom was innocent but he
The constant trend throughout this book is the symbolic meaning of white. White as Harper Lee symbolizes it is the physical representation of innocence, so naturally a white flower would represent innocence. So this means that any type of destruction of white would represent the destruction of innocence. In this case the White Camelia flowers being brutally murdered by Jem, as narrated by Scout, “He did not begin to calm down until he had cut the tops off every camelia bush.” (137) represent two things. First off this shows Jems loss of innocence, the book starts off with Jem being a 10 year old kid who is afraid of the “haunted radley house” and ends as it continues we see through Scout's eyes the process of Jem maturing, and with becoming mature comes the loss of your innocence. The Tom Robinson case is Jem’s loss of innocence the case makes Jem open his eyes to the real world and see how bad it truly is. This is symbolized by Jem destroying the White flowers. The second thing this symbolizes is the outcome of the case itself. By Jem destroying the white flowers it symbolizes a loss or destruction of innocence, and this can be said to be the same result of the outcome of the Tom Robinson case, a loss of innocence. Tom Robinson while in jail is trying to “escape” and is killed as Atticus describe, “ Seventeen bullet holes in him.” (315) this is the loss of innocence as Tom was innocent but he