Metaphor Analysis

Mockingbird: The mockingbird represents innocence.  Like hunters who kill mockingbirds for sport, people kill innocence, or other people who are innocent, without thinking about what they are doing.  Atticus stands firm in his defense of innocence and urges his children not to shoot mockingbirds both literally and figuratively.  The mockingbird motif arises four times during To Kill a Mockingbird.  First, when Atticus gives Jem and Scout air guns for Christmas and instructs them not to kill mockingbirds.  Second, when B.B. Underwood writes about Tom Robinson's death in his column.  Third, a mockingbird sings right before Bob Ewell attacks Jem and Scout.  Finally, Scout agrees with Atticus that prosecuting Boo for Ewell's murder would be like killing a mockingbird.

Boo Radley: Boo Radley represents fear.  Small town folks fear that if they act eccentric and fail to adhere to social rules they too will end up like Boo, isolated and remembered as a grotesque monster.  It is this fear that supports the social status quo and keeps individuals from standing up for that which they believe.  Until people can understand and accept Boo, as Scout does at the end of the book, they will always be stuck in a world filled with fear, lies, and ignorance.

Guns : Guns represent false strength.  According to Atticus, guns do not prove manhood or bravery.  Manhood and bravery come from a man's ability to persevere and fight using his wits, his heart, and his character.  Neighbors use and venerate guns to the detriment of developing their own personal strength.

The Radley Place: The children of Maycomb County believe that the Radley Place is evil and haunted. They run past it whenever they cannot avoid going by it, and they won’t eat the pecans that fall into the schoolyard from the pecan tree that grows in the Radley yard because they think they’re poisoned.

Knothole: The knothole is in a tree in front of the Radley place, and Scout and Jem begin finding little treasures waiting for them. They find chewing gum, two pennies, and a ball of twine, soap carvings of themselves, and a pocket watch that doesn’t work. Boo Radley leaves these treasures for the kids, and they keep them safely in a trunk in Jem’s room. They have established communication with Boo, but then Nathan Radley cements over the knot in the tree as a way to end the communication and claims that the tree was dying. Jem and Scout are crushed.

Blanket: On the coldest night Maycomb County has seen in a long time, Jem and Scout are watching Miss Maudie’s house burn, from a safe vantage point on the Radley property. Scout is freezing, and she doesn’t notice until Atticus points it out that she has acquired a brown blanket without even realizing it. Boo sneaked out of the Radley house and covered her with the blanket while she was absorbed in watching the fire.

Jem’s Pants: While Jem, Scout, and Dill were trespassing on Radley property and trying to peer in windows, someone who came out on the back porch scared them off. In their haste to escape, Jem’s pants got caught in the fence so he left them there. When he sneaked back to get them later that night, they were folded across the fence and the rips were crudely sewn. Boo Radley had repaired them for him knowing that he’d come back to get them.

Finch’s Landing: The old homestead built by Simon Finch, Scout and Jem’s ancestor. Atticus’ sister, Alexandra, and her husband live at Finch Landing, and every Christmas Scout and Jem are forced to go visit with their father. Their Uncle Jack stays with them for a week then, and they enjoy that, but the Christmas Day trip to visit Aunt Alexandra is a source of aggravation for both Scout and Jem because they have to play with their cousin, Francis.

Ewell Family: The Ewell family is the most wretched family in Maycomb County. The father is a drunkard, and they have no mother. The children show up at school on the first day and then don’t return until the first day of the next year. They are filthy and uncouth, and Scout blames their family for Jem’s broken arm.

Maycomb County: Maycomb County is where Scout, Jem, and Atticus live. It’s a small, Alabama town that is old and set in its ways. Everyone in Maycomb has been there forever, and everything is public knowledge as it is in most small towns.

Tim Johnson: Tim Johnson is an old dog who wanders Maycomb County as the community pet until it gets Rabies and Atticus has to shoot it to save the neighborhood. Before this moment, Scout and Jem think their dad is feeble and lacking any sort of impressive talents, but this moment changes their mind about Atticus. They learn that he can shoot, but he doesn’t take advantage of this talent because he doesn’t want to brag, and he considers it an unfair advantage over the animals he’d be hunting.

Chiffarobe: The chiffarobe was the chest of drawers that Mayella Ewell claimed she asked Tom Robinson to come onto their property and chop up on the evening she claimed he raped her. Although she and her father both insisted that she asked him to chop up the chiffarobe that night, Tom said that she’d asked him to do that the spring before the alleged rape.