To Kill A Mockingbird Themes

There are various issues and themes presented in the novel "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee and "The Rabbits" by John Marsden and illustrated by Shaun Tan. These themes are being smoothly conveyed through the use of different language techniques including complex metaphors, similes, hyperboles, imagery, personification and symbolism. Among the main themes used in the novels are courage, prejudice, hypocrisy, justice, education, social inequality, poverty and perspective.

"Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer 's day; bony mules
Hyperboles are used to further express the feelings of the narrator, "two geological ages later, we heard the soles of Atticus ' scrape the front steps.""Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it 's a sin to kill a mockingbird. ' Harper Lee effectively uses symbolism in To Kill A Mockingbird. The mockingbird itself is a symbol, the symbol of innocence. Tom Robinson is an example of a 'mockingbird ' in the novel as he is shot down even though he was innocent and never did anything to hurt anybody. Boo Radley is another example of a mocking bird, he is the symbol of good that exists within people but no one ever understood that, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb into his skin and walk around in it. '"Uses of irony also exist in the text including the use of the name Robert E. Lee Ewell, a brave confederate general, as the name of the white trash, evil man who accused Tom Robinson of raping his daughter. Also irony is present when Scout 's teacher Miss Gates tells them to repeat that "we are a democracy" and don 't believe in prejudice, but Scout had just witnessed an innocent black man being sentenced for