To Kill A Mockingbird Essays (1236 words) - To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird To kill a mockingbird, is an award winning novel written by Harper Lee. Harper Lee uses creative and effective language when describing Maycomb society, that is, the people and the place of Maycomb. The place shapes the people and the people live in a small-town community. The people are a mainly friendly community and hold high values, such as values of the family. However, most of the people tend to be judgemental and intolerant, excluding other people from the community, such as snobby, unfriendly families, poor people and the black community. They also tend to categorise each other on the basis of social status. The children in Maycomb reflect the Maycomb society to a large extent and the language used to describe them also helps us to figures of speech (such as similes), imagery and devisces of sound (such as repetition) to help us see and know the characters of Maycomb better. The author described Maycomb as an old town, but a tired, old town. The personification of the town as a tired, old person and the repetition of old town reinforces the image of people and things moving very slowly in the town and that the buildings of the town are old. It is also said that in rainy weather, the streets turned to red slop, giving an impression that the town us small and not developed like a city. The town is described as very hot, where ladies bathed before noon, after their three oclock naps, and by nightfall were like soft tea-cakes with frostings of sweet and sweet talcum. The simile that the ladies were like soft tea-ckaes with frostings. helps the reader see how hot Maycomb can be and the routine of some of the women as they responded t o the towns conditions by bathing often. Most of the people in Maycomb know each other very well since Maycomb is a small town. They are very friendly. The author described the closed shutters and doors of the Radley house as alien to Maycombs ways: closed doors meant illness and cold weather only. The word alien shows a sharp contrast between the Radleys unfriendliness and the rest of the communitys warmth. Most people in Maycomb hold high values, such as values of the family. Scouts family is one of the stable families in Maycomb. The children, Scout and Jem are allowed to act as children, playing outdoors. Scouts experiences of getting into trouble with Calpurnia, their cook, are shown in the authors use of simile her (Calpurnias) hand was as wide as a bed slate and twice as hard. This helps the reader to imagine Scouts naughtiness and feel her pain and indignation at being spanked. However, the community has some unloving families, such as the Radley family. From the day Mr Radley took Arthur home (from the court), people said the house died. The house is representative of the family and the personification that the house died meant that there was no longer love or happiness in the Radley family. Many people in the community treated the Radley family as social outcasts rejecting and excluding them because of their snobbishness, unfriendliness and harshness. Many people made rumours about Arthur Radley, which shows that a large part of Maycomb society was ignorant and cruel. Miss Stephanie Crawford said that she woke up in the middle of the night one time and say him (Boo Radley) looking straight through the window at her said his head was like a skull lookin at her. The simile that Arthur Radleys face was like a skull makes the image of him very scary and threatening. Miss Stephanie is an adult but was treating Arthur, who is younger and more vulnerable than her, as a non-hunan and a reject from society. Many people in Maycomb are judgemental and intolerant. Maycomb society is also racist, rejecting the black community and allowing them to work in only a few jobs such as being servants. Calpurnia is black and when she said that Mr Radley was the meanest man and spat in the yard, Scout and Jem looked at her in surprise, for Calpurnia rarely commented on the ways of white people. Although Scouts family