Symbolism Learning Intentions To be aware of symbolism and understand its meaning To be able to recognise its use and effect in the novel To be able to demonstrate this awareness in a critical essay ID: 620277
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Slide1
To Kill a Mockingbird
SymbolismSlide2
Learning Intentions
To be aware of symbolism and understand its meaning
To be able to recognise its use and effect in the novelTo be able to demonstrate this awareness in a critical essaySlide3
Symbolism - Definition
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colours used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.Slide4
Symbolism is present in society in many forms:
Traffic symbols
Religion
Activity: Work with your partner and try to think of at least three examples of how symbols are used in society.Slide5
Symbolism in society - Feedback
Slide6
Literary Symbolism
Symbolism is used in literature to invest the text with a deeper meaning
.
For example
Blood
is used in “Macbeth to symbolise” guilt
The
Conch shell
is used in “Lord of the Flies” to symbolise civilisation and order on the island.
Slide7
“To Kill a Mockingbird” and Symbolism
Symbolism in “To Kill a Mockingbird” is used frequently, it is subtle and invests the text with greater meaning and significance.
Activity – Work with your partner, can you remember the uses of symbolism that we have studied so far in “To Kill a Mocking Bird.”Slide8
Examples of Symbolism from “To Kill a Mockingbird”
Mockingbird
Oak tree at the Radley place
The Courthouse
The Snowman
Roly Poly
Gifts in the tree
Mad dog
Fire at Miss Maudies
Sun being high in the sky.Slide9
Mocking Bird
What does it symbolise?
Who are the symbolic mockingbirds in the novel?
Why are they considered to be mockingbirds?Slide10
Mockingbirds first appear when
Jem
and Scout are learning how to use their shiny new air rifles. Atticus won’t teach them how to shoot, but he does give them one rule to follow:
“
Atticus said to
Jem
one day, "I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the
bluejays
you want, if you can hit '
em
, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.“”Slide11
“That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss
Maudie
about it.”
“
"Your father's right," she said. "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's a sin to kill a mockingbird.“”Slide12
After Tom Robinson is shot, Mr. Underwood compares his death to:
“the senseless slaughter of songbirds,” Slide13
And we will find out at the end of the book Scout understands that hurting Boo Radley would be like:
“shootin’ a mockingbird.”Slide14
“The Courthouse sagged in the square”
What does the courthouse and its condition symbolise here?Slide15
The Oak Tree
In Ch4 What does the Oak Tree and its roots at the
Radley
place represent?
Why is the Oak Tree particularly significant in the novel?
We will see how what the Oak Tree represents changes at the end of the novel.Slide16
Two live oaks stood at the edge of the Radley Lot; their roots reached out into the side-road and made it bumpy.
”
The
tree roots are becoming more prominent
and have begun to disrupt the road.
There’s a connection between the
roots spreading out
and
Boo trying
to reach
out and make contact with the community.
Boo Radley is trying to reach out to the community and feel less isolated.
The
children are making more and more significant contact with Boo Radley and it becomes increasingly dangerous. It disrupts
the
community as
Boo Radley emergesSlide17
Sun at noon
In Ch5 When the children are playing the game “One Man’s Family” (in which they pretended to be the Radleys) we are told that “the sun said twelve noon”
What did this symbolise? Slide18
Solo Activity
Using the notes you have taken write a paragraph in formal critical essay style about Harper Lee’s use of symbolism in “To Kill a Mockingbird”
Start with:
Lee uses subtle symbolism throughout the novel to invest the text with greater meaning and to highlight the main themes...
To be completed and handed in for next Monday - 15
th
November.