To Kill a Mockingbird question

Are you trying to get Goodreads to do your homework for you? ;)

Well, Tim Johnson could be a symbol of all the difficult and scary things Atticus had to do for the community.

Paraphrasing, "You can shoot all the jays you want but it's a sin to kill a mockingbird because they don't do anything wrong." Mockingbirds: Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, Jem and Scout Finch, maybe even Mayella Ewell before the chifforobe.

"Are you trying to get Goodreads to do your homework for you? ;)"

My thoughts exactly. I would love to chat about symbolism in this book, but the teacher it me wants to say - "What do YOU think, Cece?"

Cece wrote: "It's no mystery that there's endless hidden symbolism inside the story and I'd love to hear what details you guys have picked up and explain it!! Can't wait to hear what you guys have come up with!!"

I see precious little symbolism in the book. Even the Mockingbird symbol seems strained, even with the "Finch" last name of Scout and her family. The geraniums don't ring at all with me as a meaningful symbol.

I think it was counter to Harper Lee's personality to deal in fancy symbols and literary technique. She was blunt and straightforward in person, and her prose reflects her personality.

"Endless hidden symbolism?" Show me. I don't see it.

This is a favorite of mine and I acknowledge there are some symbols in the book beyond the mockingbird, but they aren't particularly strong or interesting to me to talk about. But the idea of the mockingbird runs through the book and not everyone sees how Lee uses it. Beyond the obvious (Boo Radley and Tom Robinson), there are other more subtle figures who do no harm and do not deserve to be hurt in return (Dill, the roly poly, the children at the end, the Grey Ghost, even Misses Tutti and Frutti). But while there are books I dig into and tear apart looking for every last little hint of meaning, there are other books I equally enjoy that I let speak for themselves. And TKM falls into that second group of books. Lee's strength as an author isn't in creating complex symbols; it's the voice, the dialogue, the characters, the homey details, etc. and of course it's the story.

Having said that, here goes...in addition to the ones already mentioned on the thread, here are a few more symbols, ranging from the simple and obvious (Jem is colorblind...get it??? ) to the ridiculous (Miss Maudie's creeping nut grass represents something which I don't buy...pervasive racism?). But Lee is doing something subtle that I like with the "left": Bob Lee is left handed, while Tom cannot use his left (sinister/evil) arm. Jem's injury mirrors Tom's on the left; he will grow into a just and kind man who does not hurt others. Atticus is slightly blind in his left eye. He has a hard time seeing the evil in others, even in a man as bad as Bob Ewell. He always wants to see the good in others.

In general, I think symbolism is the least interesting thing about a book. The only time people discuss it is in school. When they're reading for pleasure, who thinks about it at all? I like dialogue best.

Of course, readers may often see symbolism which the author never intended, and then we get into the discussion of subconscious universal archetypes and such...which only shows that not even the author can concretely explain all the symbolism in a given work. That is what makes it so interesting to discuss, for me: reading other people's interpretations and points of view.

Since the racism is referred to as Maycomb's disease, Atticus shooting the rabid Tim Robinson has always seemed to me symbolic of a desire to eliminate the rabid disease of racism from his community.

At the end of the trial when the verdict is rendered, Scout thinks of the day Atticus shot Tim Johnson, and Lee's point is pretty clear by then: it's fairly easy to shoot and kill a rabid dog, especially if you're a marksman. But killing racism? That's not something so easy to achieve, even for Atticus.

In the courtroom at the end of Chapter 21, Scout thinks to herself, knowing already what the verdict is based on the body language of the jurors, "it was like watching Atticus walk into the street, raise a rifle to his shoulder and pull the trigger, but watching all the time knowing that the gun is empty" (240).

I do believe part of what makes this book so wonderful is the symbolism in it, and it seemed to me that most of it had to do with the very title. The sentence "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." holds three meanings to me within the book. Not only it applies to Boo Radley, but to Tom Robinson and to all white people in general(back in that time, of course.)

I think it's interesting that the white people meaning was the first one I thought made sense, for I had not yet read the parts with Tom Robinson and Boo Radley. I believe the author meant that, back in the day, you thought you could cause damage to all the black people you wanted, and it wouldn't matter half as much as getting in the way of a white person, despite the bluejays and the mockingbirds both being birds, despite us all being humans.

But "all white people" don't bring beauty and cause no harm. And Atticus would never equate killing bluejays with granting permission to hurt black people or innocent people. That's too broad an interpretation of what Atticus tells Jem (and by extension what Lee tells her readers).