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3.2 Dill: An abandoned child with high self-esteem 6
3.3 The significance of symbolism on Dill: criticising the growing-up problems of children 6
4. Raymond 7
4.1 Raymond’s way of life: Treating the black people equally 7
4.2 Exclusion from both the whites and the blacks to Raymond 8
4.3 The effect of symbolism on Raymond: Revealing the sickening racism at that time 9
5. Atticus 9
5.1 Integrity and decency of Atticus 9
5.2 Insults at Atticus and his failure to free the black man 10
5.3 The importance of symbolism on Atticus: Highlighting the themes of the novel 11
6. Jem and Scout 12
6.1 Innocence and purity of Jem and Scout 12
6.2 The socialization of Scout with the innocence and purity lost during their growth 12
6.3 The significance of symbolism on Scout: Revolving around the themes 13
7. Conclusion 14
References 15
1. Introduction
1.1Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird
Born on April 28th, 1926, Harper Lee was the youngest of four children in her family. She developed an interest in English literature since she was at Monroe County High School in Alabama. And Lee never expected any sort of success with Mockingbird after the novel was published in 1960. Moreover, she won the highest level of literary award in America---the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is considered as one of the most classical masterpieces in American literary history even in the whole world.
Narrated in a voice of a little child, Lee presents a story which transpires the lives of the Finchs and she portrays the life in Maycomb from the summer of 1932 to Halloween night in 1935. These years are of the hard period in the history of America---the Great Depression. Besides, there are some autobiographical details in this novel, for example, Dill and Boo Radley, are inspired by her childhood neighbors. And the far less well-known trail of Walter Lett in Monroeville in 1933 was likely Lee’s actual source for the Tom Robinson’s trail. All these cases have key features in common in Tom’s ordeal. The honor of a white woman is allegedly violated, and the honor of the white community is thus called into question; white vigilantes attempts to take the law into their own hands by lynching the accused; if this fails, an white jury ignores any exculpatory evidence and delivers a guilty verdicts and condemns the accused man to death. The unwritten laws of Southern society which act solely to maintain white privilege and power are more powerful than the written ones. The jury will stand with their race, and not on their laws, which exposes darkness and ugliness in human nature.
And since this novel was translated into different versions, it’s quite wide-spread around the world. Nowadays, this novel still plays a significant role in calling for people to fight for truth, justice, democracy and equality. That’s why it is so classic and successful.
1.2 Literature Review
The novel To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee is one of the most frequently censored books in
the United States. The American Librarians Association lists it as one of the Top 100 Banned Novels of the Twentieth Century. There is some specialized research on To Kill a Mockingbird from some in-depth angels in literary circles. Many scholars, from home and abroad, have interpreted this novel from different points of view.