Examples Of Imagery In To Kill A Mockingbird

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On november 11, 1960 Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird was published. It was a great success and one year after it was published it was awarded the pulitzer prize. It is now considered a literary masterpiece and known all over the world. The book is narrated by a young girl named Scout living in a small town called Maycomb in Alabama in the 1930’s. Scout and her brother jem learn many new lessons and grow up together by experiencing things they never thought would happen.In both the book and movie of To Kill a Mockingbird there is an abundant amount of imagery of maycomb. Throughout the book and movie imagery is all over, but the book has a better sense of imagery and is more effective throughout the both. The way Lee writes she uses …show more content…
Scout describes the Courthouse as “The Maycomb County courthouse was faintly reminiscent of Arlington in one respect: the concrete pillars supporting its south roof were too heavy for their light burden. The pillars were all that remained standing when the original courthouse burned in 1856. Another courthouse was built around them. It is better to say, built in spite of them. But for the south porch, the Maycomb County courthouse was early Victorian, presenting an unoffensive vista when seen from the north. From the other side, however, Greek revival columns clashed with a big nineteenth-century clock tower housing a rusty unreliable instrument, a view indicating a people determined to preserve every physical scrap of the past.’’ The way Lee describes the courthouse, imagery appears and she makes it so that the reader can imagine what it would look like. Also during the trial of Tom Robinson Lee adds more about the courthouse such as “The colored balcony ran along three walls of the courtroom like a second story veranda.’’ When Lee adds this in, it gives the reader more of a chance to imagine what it would be like and it is a very effective scene of imagery. However in the movie Scout never describes the Courthouse so it does not let the reader get that sense of imagery that is provided in the book. When Lee adds scout telling the description of the Courthouse in the book it provides a sense of imagery to the reader and really does a good job portraying the courthouse. In this scene The imagery used by the book was very well written and provided the reader with a sense that they were actually there in the courtroom. The book’s imagery was more effective than the movies in this particular