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Miss Maudie's House Fire

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Miss Maudie's House Fire
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the fire at Miss Maudie’s is symbolic for the transpirations during and after Tom Robinson’s trial. Parallels between the two events are unmistakable. While the fire raged on, for example, all the citizens of Maycomb tried to save Miss Maudie’s house. This can reflect the outcome at Tom Robinson’s trial, when Atticus tried to save Tom. Another time is during the fire at Miss Maudie’s. The townspeople know that Maudie’s blazing house will collapse. Similarly, the citizens knew that Tom Robinson would be arrested after his trial. A snippet of a conversation that Jem and Atticus have shows us that they know Maudie’s house is going down, “‘It’s gone, ain’t it?’ moaned Jem. ‘I expect so,’ said Atticus.” …show more content…
Fortunately, both Atticus and the people helping are able to escape those possibilities. Although it seems like Atticus’s hard work is for naught, he, in some kind of weird, unsaid verdict, won. Except this can never be voiced, due to the rampant racism in Maycomb. This brings me to my last point, how Miss Maudie was glad that the fire burned her house down so she could build a new one. After the trial, the black people in Maycomb weren’t exactly thrilled that Tom died, but they are ecstatic to know that Atticus had made a positive impact on how black people are seen. Miss Maudie even tells Jem and Scout about how she feels about her house turned to ashes, ‘“Why, I hated that old cow barn. Thought of settin‘ fire to it a hundred times myself, except they’d lock me up.’...‘Why, I’ll build me a little house and take me a couple of roomers and—gracious, I’ll have the finest yard in Alabama.’” Miss Maudie reveals that she doesn’t quite care for her old, spacious house; instead, she favors a small house with an immense garden. Rather than being disappointed that her house burned down, she was delighted about what resulted from

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