Literary devices are tools authors use to help them drive home a point or a mental picture for the reader. Figures of speech, such as metaphors, similes, analogies, allusions, symbolism, and imagery are great ways for authors to do this. Below are a few examples found in Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.
One of the first literary devices used is when Scout calls Boo Radley "a malevolent phantom" in chapter one (8). This is a metaphor that ...
Literary devices are tools authors use to help them drive home a point or a mental picture for the reader. Figures of speech, such as metaphors, similes, analogies, allusions, symbolism, and imagery are great ways for authors to do this. Below are a few examples found in Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.
One of the first literary devices used is when Scout calls Boo Radley "a malevolent phantom" in chapter one (8). This is a metaphor that alludes to an evil ghost-like figure living in a haunted house. This also creates a creepy atmosphere for the setting. This image of a ghost is revisited two pages later when Jem asks Atticus if Mr. Radley keeps Boo chained to a bed. Atticus responds by saying, "there were other ways of making people into ghosts" (11). This cryptic response keeps the spooky mood moving along as Scout discusses the mysterious Radleys and their house.
Another literary device that is effectively used by author Harper Lee is the analogy. Analogies compare two similar circumstances together to create a deeper meaning. For example, when Scout and Miss Maudie are discussing Atticus in chapter five, Scout says, "Atticus don't ever do anything to Jem and me in the house that he don't do in the yard" (46). Here, the analogous comparison is between the closed, private doors of a house and an open, public place like a yard. The way Atticus behaves in both helps to explain his honorable character.
Another example literary device usage is in chapter ten during the mad dog scene. Scout mentions that the mockingbirds are silent (94), which suggests they sense danger and don't have a happy song to sing at the moment. Mentioning mockingbirds is symbolic to the story as a whole because of the motif it carries with it. It's also an allusion to danger. Scout describes the danger that surrounds the dog as follows:
"He seemed dedicated to one course and motivated by an invisible force that was inching him toward us. We could see him shiver like a horse shedding flies; his jaw opened and shut; he was alist, but he was being pulled gradually toward us" (95).
The highlighted phrase shows a simile comparing the sick dog's body behaving like that of a horse when its muscles shudder to get flies off it.
One final example of a literary device (although there are many, many more throughout the book), is when Mr. Underwood writes a newspaper article about how Tom Robinson died in chapter 25. Scout summarizes by saying:
"Mr. Underwood simply figured it was a sin to kill cripples, be they standing, sitting, or escaping. He likened Tom's death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children" (241).
Just like Atticus teaches his children not to kill mockingbirds because they are of no harm to anyone, Mr. Underwood carries the motif further and applies it to Tom's death. Not only is a simile used, but the images of Tom Robinson's disability coupled with song birds is symbolic of the major lesson of the story.
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