Adrian Fernandes

Ms. Freemon

English 1 Honors

April 3rd 2023.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a treasure among American literature because it

portrays the injustice African Americans faced at the time and through the eyes of an innocent

unbiased girl we witness grow up throughout the novel. The novel contains many literary

elements such as a Camellia flower that symbolizes perseverance and bravery, and used irony to

show the hypocritical thinking some residents of the depression era Alabama town had towards

African Americans, Most of the unfortunate events and extremely rude language people used to

each other in the novel can be traced back to the mentality the whites of Maycomb had at the

time towards African Americans.

In the Novel, Harper Lee used the symbol of a Camellia flower to represent perseverance

and bravery in the face of danger and adversity. The Camellia flower stands for this because as

stated by Atticus to Jem:

“son, I told you that if you hadn’t lost your head I’d have made you go read to her. I

wanted you to see something about her—I wanted you to see what real courage is,

instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand . It’s when you

know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no

matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight

pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was

the bravest person I ever knew.” (chapter 11 pg.149).

In those lines, Atticus was explaining to Jem why he wanted him to read to her if he had not torn

up the Camellia bush. The trait of bravery and perseverance is displayed here because Mrs.

Dubose was a morphine addict, due to her age the withdrawal symptoms can be very painful for

her but each day she seemed determined to not use morphine. Atticus saw that and knew that the

pain was very painful for her so he wanted Jem to read to her to help distract her from the pain.

Jem also displayed courage here too because he was scared of entering the house and despised

how Mrs. Dubose said the most hateful things to him but he still went every day to read to her.

Like most flowers and bushes with flowers, A Camellia bush would want to grow flowers

despite the dangers the flower might face. This is related to Atticus defending Tom Robinson

because Atticus was appointed to defend Tom and agreed to do so despite what dangers they may

face or what the town may say about Atticus. An example of this was one night when Atticus

went out to the town and to the jailhouse where Tom Robinson was. When Scout got there she

described the scene as this:

“A long extension cord ran between the bars of a second-floor window and down the side

of the building. In the light from its bare bulb, Atticus was sitting propped against the

front door. He was sitting in one of his office chairs, and he was reading, oblivious of the

nightbugs dancing over his head” (chapter 15 pg. 201).

There Atticus displayed perseverance and bravery in defending Tom Robinson because he went

out of his way to defend Tom Robinson from getting lynched and possibly risked his own safety

too. Atticus was also unarmed that night and because they are in the deep south in the 1930’s

most people had weapons especially if they were looking to lynch someone. But Atticus going

out there unarmed to protect Tom shows how he was not afraid to stand up for what he believed.

Throughout the novel, Harper Lee used irony to display the hypocritical thinking certain

residents of the town had. An example of irony is said by Mrs. Gates as she is teaching her class:
 “Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who

are prejudiced. Prejudice,” she enunciated carefully. “There are no better people in the

world than the Jews, and why Hitler doesn’t think so is a mystery to me.” (chapter 26 pg

329).

In those lines, Mrs. Gates states that all people are equal and because America is a democracy

she claims no one is persecuted here. Scout is confused by this because she recalls what Mrs.

Gates said as she was leaving the courthouse shortly after Tom Robinson was convicted:

“Well, coming out of the courthouse that night Miss Gates was—she was goin‘ down the

steps in front of us, you musta not seen her—she was talking with Miss Stephanie

Crawford. I heard her say it’s time somebody taught ’em a lesson, they were gettin‘ way

above themselves, an’ the next thing they think they can do is marry us. Jem, how can you

hate Hitler so bad an‘ then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home—”

(chapter 26 pg. 330-331).

This reveals the hypocrisy of Mrs. Gates because she taught her students that persecution is

unjust, but Scout recalls her hateful comments about Tom Robinson as she was leaving the

courthouse showing how she cared about the racial injustice and persecution on the other side of

the ocean rather than the persecution innocent minorities faced in her own country and in her

own community. Another example of irony in the novel is when Scout was at the gathering with

all the women in chapter 24 hosted in Atticus’ home. Miss Maudi is angered at Miss

Merriwether for criticizing Atticus and says to her:

“His food doesn’t stick going down, does it?” (chapter 24 pg. 312).

This shows irony because Mrs. Merriwether was criticizing Atticus in his own home like she was

not in his home, at his table, and eating his food, and served and cooked by his immediate

families housemaid that receives a wage from Atticus’ money.

 A recurring motif in the novel is the negative mentality most residents of Maycomb had

towards the African Americans from their own community. One of the biggest examples of this

is the court session of the Tom Robinson case. In Atticus’ closing argument he said:

“To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. This case is as simple as black

and white. The state has not produced one iota of medical evidence to the effect that the

crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place. It has relied instead upon the

testimony of two witnesses whose evidence has not only been called into serious question

on cross-examination, but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant.”(chapter 20 pg.

271).

In Atticus’ closing argument, he points out how simple the case is and how there is no physical

or medical evidence to prove the crime happened, they only have two completely different

testimonies. He used the term “black and white” as a way of saying this case is simply the

tension between white people and black people to give further explanation as to why the case

came to trial despite lack of evidence. Later in his closing argument he also says:

“but there is circumstantial evidence to indicate that Mayella Ewell was beaten savagely

by someone who led almost exclusively with his left. We do know in part what Mr. Ewell

did: he did what any God-fearing, persevering, respectable white man would do under

the circumstances—he swore out a warrant, no doubt signing it with his left hand, and

Tom Robinson now sits before you, having taken the oath with the only good hand he

possesses—his right hand.” (chapter 20 pg. 272).

In those lines from Atticus he points out that Mayella Ewell was “savagely” beaten by someone

who is left handed and also pointed out that the accused, Tom Robinson has only one working

arm being his right one and also goes on to point out that Mr. Ewell is left-handed himself. Here
he gave more reason as to why Tom’s case is stronger than the Ewells. After his closing

argument, The jury went out to make their decision which only took a few hours to do. When the

jury came back in with their decision. Scout described the moment the judge delivered the

sentencing and it said:

“A jury never looks at a defendant it has convicted, and when this jury came in, not one

of them looked at Tom Robinson. The foreman handed a piece of paper to Mr. Tate who

handed it to the clerk who handed it to the judge… I shut my eyes. Judge Taylor was

polling the jury: “Guilty… guilty… guilty… guilty” (chapter 22 pg. 282).

In those lines, the jury still decided that Tom Robinson was guilty despite the good amount of

evidence showing that he was not. That suggests that the jury was racially biased in their

decision and went along with the flawed testimonies of Mayella and Mr. Ewell rather than the

strong case in favor of Tom Robinson. Another example of what some residents thought about

the case was when Jem and Scout went to town and Scout overheard what many of the people

there had to say about them:

“we would squirm our way through sweating sidewalk crowds and sometimes hear,

“There’s his chillun,” or, “Yonder’s some Finches.”... “They c’n go loose and rape up the

countryside for all of ‘em who run this county care,” was one obscure observation we

met head on from a skinny gentleman when he passed us.”(chapter 14 pg. 180).

That example shows how they were pointed out in the crowd and overheard some bad

observations from people. Usually, when someone or the children of that someone gets pointed

out in public, most of the time it means they are known for something they have done or what

their parents have done, most of the town knew that Atticus was defending Tom Robinson which

most of them disliked. Because Jem and Scout were pointed out in public when they were just

walking and referred to as Atticus’ children suggests that certain residents of Maycomb were
negatively judging the Finch family just because Atticus was defending Tom Robinson. Another

example is when Scout walked by a club where a bunch of retired men hung out and she

overheard a conversation they had that went:

“Lemme tell you somethin‘ now, Billy,” a third said, “you know the court appointed him

to defend this n****r.” “Yeah, but Atticus aims to defend him. That’s what I don’t like

about it.” (chapter 16 pg. 218).

Scout overheard their conversation hearing a man admit to disliking Atticus for who he wanted

to defend. Another example is when Scout was in second grade and she was in an argument with

Cecil Jacobs and Cecil Jacobs said:

“My folks said your daddy was a disgrace an‘ that n****r oughta hang from the

water-tank!”(chapter 9 pg. 102).

What Cecil Jacobs said emphasizes that there are kids picking up on the negative and extremely

horrible things their parents are saying about Atticus and most likely what they say about African

Americans. This reveals that disliking African Americans and disliking people that do business

with them was a normal mentality back then among their community because of how openly and

angrily they talked about it.

As you can see Harper Lee used the view from an innocent girl to give an unbiased view

of the injustice African Americans faced in her depression era Alabama town. The novel uses

literary elements like a Camellia flower symbolizing bravery and perseverance. The literary

element of irony is used to display the hypocritical mentalities certain residents of Maycomb had

towards African Americans. A motif in the novel being the negative mentalities certain residents

of Maycomb had towards the African Americans within their own community. Lee highlighted

the dangers of racism in the novel but also gave a Father in the novel that is trying to teach his

kids to not have a racist mentality and to stand up for what is right. That makes the novel one of
the biggest reasons why it has been part of the curriculum of many American English classes for

the past few decades.