Harper Lee?S “To Kill A Mockingbird” Essay, Research Paper

In a poem by Emily Dickenson she implies that there is nothing like reading a book to take your imagination to great places. She states, “There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away.” Such an idea that excites the imagination to take us places is expressed in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.

In To Kill a Mockingbird there is a great use of symbolism to ignite the human imagination. The title of the book is only mentioned in the story when the father of the protagonist, Atticus Finch, tells his children that if they have to kill birds, they can kill any bird, but “tis a sin to kill a mockingbird.” Although this may seem peculiar, the use of symbolism is evident in the fact that the main protagonists of the story all have a last name that is the name of a type of bird. Such as the wrongly accused and later killed Tom Robinson. Also the dedicated lawyers family name is Finch.

Another way this story uses our imagination greatly is in the characterization of Boo Radley. Throughout the majority of the story you just hear of him through gossip stories of the neighbors or through the children’s imaginative games. Boo was always the amusement to the children due to the fact they had never seen him and always heard of the threat he was and were kept away from his house. This sparks the imagination to think and try and create an image of Boo Radley through the eyes of these young children.

There is great irony in the story as well. As mentioned above, Boo Radley was the main focal point for the children’s games, due the mystery of whom he was. They always thought he was their major threat and if he were to catch them, he would kill them. The view of the reader dramatically changes in the end when this same man ends up saving the children’s lives from the drunken dirt bag of the town, Bob Ewell.

In conclusion, one can see that the use of literary devices can absolutely take your imagination away. This is seen from the symbolism of names, to the characterization of mysterious characters or the dramatic irony of the change of view of the reader. So, the imagination can travel to places you never thought could, just by reading words from a paper.