Skip to main content

What literature techniques does Harper Lee use in To Kill a Mockingbird to represent Atticus's masculinity?What literature techniques are used in...

In Chapter 11 of To Kill a Mockingbird, two literary techniques author Harper Lee uses to represent Atticus's masculinity are imagery and figurative language. Throughout the novel, Lee uses Atticus to show us that masculinity necessitates bravery. However, interestingly, one way in which she defines bravery is the ability to pay the utmost respect to your fellow human beings at all times, regardless of any circumstances, something that takes a great deal of courage to do. In Chapter 11, Lee uses the scene Scout narrates of Atticus paying his respect to Mrs. Dubose to characterize his bravery and to show bravery's close relationship with respect.

Imagery is first used to depict Atticus's bravery. Imagery is found in Scout's description of Atticus "sweep[ing] off his hat" and "gallantly" greeting Mrs. Dubose anytime he passes her house. Since we can visibly see hats, as well as hats being swept off a man's head, we know Scout's description includes a sight image. In addition, since we can hear someone speaking to another person, even in a gallant manner, we know Scout's description also includes a sound image. Both images characterize Atticus's masculinity because he is performing actions that only gentlemanly men, like himself, perform.

One example of figurative language we find in this same passage is a simile in Atticus's comment to Mrs. Dubose, "You look like a picture this evening." Though Scout notes the truth that he never says "like a picture of what," we know the simile in Atticus's comment serves as a compliment since pictures generally contain images people actually want to look at. Though Scout might accuse Atticus of lying, we learn later on that Atticus has genuine heartfelt respect for Mrs. Dubose, despite her cantankerous attitude. Therefore, the simile in Atticus's compliment shows that he is willing to dig deep within himself to see people as they would like to be seen rather than as his instincts might guide him to see. Since Scout is still young, she is guided by her instincts more than by her rational thought, and her instincts tell her that Mrs. Dubose is a horrible, ugly person. In contrast, Atticus is able to see the good in Mrs. Dubose and genuinely express the good he sees in a compliment in the form of a simile. Digging deep within one's self to see the good in another person is not an easy thing to do. Since it is a difficult task, we can say it takes a great deal of bravery to see a person in a new light. Therefore, Atticus's ability to use a simile in order to genuinely compliment Mrs. Dubose further shows us how brave he is, which further characterizes his masculinity.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A man has a garden measuring 84 meters by 56 meters. He divides it into the minimum number of square plots. What is the length of the square plots?

We wish to divide this man's garden into the minimum number of square plots possible. A square has all four sides with the same length.Our garden is a rectangle, so the answer is clearly not 1 square plot. If we choose the wrong length for our squares, we may end up with missing holes or we may not be able to fit our squares inside the garden. So we have 84 meters in one direction and 56 meters in the other direction. When we start dividing the garden in square plots, we are "filling" those lengths in their respective directions. At each direction, there must be an integer number of squares (otherwise, we get holes or we leave the garden), so that all the square plots fill up the garden nicely. Thus, our job here is to find the greatest common divisor of 84 and 56. For this, we prime factor both of them: `56 = 2*2*2*7` `84 = 2*2*3*7` We can see that the prime factors and multiplicities in common are `2*2*7 = 28` . This is the desired length of the square plots. If you wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

What warning does Chuchundra issue to Rikki?

Chuchundra, the sniveling, fearful muskrat who creeps around walls because he is too terrified to go into the center of a room, meets Rikki in the middle of the night. He insults Rikki by begging him not to kill him. He then insults him by suggesting that Nag might mistake Chuchundra for Rikki. He says, "Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes."  He issues this warning to Rikki not to help keep Rikki safe but as a way of explaining why Rikki's presence gives him, Chuchundra, more reason to fear.  Chuchundra starts to tell Rikki what Chua the rat told him--but breaks it off when he realizes he might be overheard by Nag. He says, "Nag is everywhere, Rikki-Tikki." Rikki threatens to bite Chuchundra to get him to talk. Even then, Chuchundra won't overtly reveal any information. But he does say, "Can't you hear, Rikki-Tikki?" This is enough of a clue for the clever mongoose. He listens carefully and can just make out the "faintest scratch-s...
Post a Comment
Read more