Transcript Document

TKAM Notes
symbols, themes, & motifs
Bird Symbolism
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Bluejays:
“Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember, it’s a
sin to kill a mockingbird.”
Bluejays as bullies of the bird world
Mockingbirds:
“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 is a sin to kill a
mockingbird.”
Who is the “mockingbird” in this novel?
Finches:
Trusting
Come readily to feeders.
Breed in close association with people
Robins:
Very similar to mockingbirds, known for their song.
One of the most common birds in America…
Name Symbolism
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Arthur “Boo” Radley
Boo = fear
Arthur = “bear”
Radley =“from the fields” or “meadow”
Dolphus Raymond
Dolphus = “majestic wolf”
Raymond = “protecting hands’
Name Symbolism Cont.
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Atticus:
Roman aristocrat
Jeremy:
Hebrew, “appointed by god”
Jem / gem…
Jean Louise Finch:
Jean = “gift from god”
Louise = “fame in war”
Scout: literal definition
Alexandra: “man’s defender”
Name Symbolism Cont.
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Charles “Dill” Baker Harris
Charles = “free man”
Harris: “son of Harry” & Harry = “army ruler”
Walter Cunningham:
Walter = “ruler/leader”
Bob:
Literal definition
Robert = “fame & glory”
Mayella:
From Maia = Greek goddess
Ella = torch, bright, light
Names cont.
• Maudie = “powerful battler”
• Tennyson poem: Come to the Garden
Maud…Oh! That ‘twere possible
– Closing stanza:
• Let it flame or fade, and the war roll down like a wind/We
have proved we have hearts in a cause, we are noble
still,/Any myself have awaked, as it seems, to the better
mind;/It is better to fight for the good than to rail at the
ill;/I have felt with my native land, I am one with my kind/I
embrace the purpose of God, and the doom assign’d
Symbols
• Tom Robinson
– Withered arm as crippled powerlessness of
black community
– archetype
• Watches
– Stopped time
• Innocence lost
– “tree of knowledge”