1. Figurative Language in To Kill a Mockingbird

2. Quick Quiz:
1. Number from 1 to 5 on a sheet of paper.
2. Identify which of the sentences with the accompanying picture is either an idiom, personification, hyperbole, a metaphor, or a simile?

3. 1. The lunch line reached from the beginning 2
1. The lunch line reached from the beginning 2. The fog curled over the to the end of the Great Wall of China. tombstones like locks of hair. Idiom? Personification? Hyperbole? Metaphor? Simile? 3. We need a home run to win; keep your finger's crossed. 4. My binder is an overflowing sea of papers. 5. The storm stared down into my core with beady eyes.

4. 1. The lunch line reached from the beginning 2
1. The lunch line reached from the beginning 2. The fog curled over the to the end of the Great Wall of China. tombstones like locks of hair. Hyperbole Simile 3. We need a home run to win; keep your finger's crossed. Idiom 4. My binder is an overflowing sea of papers. Metaphor 5. The storm stared down into my core with beady eyes. Personification

5. Simile
“Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum” (Lee 6).
* pages numbers = 50th Anniversary Edition paperback

6. Simile
“Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum” (Lee 6).
The women of Maycomb are described as “sweet” but covered with beads of water and visible powder.
* pages numbers = 50th Anniversary Edition paperback

7. Simile
“The Radley place fascinated Dill. In spite of our warnings it drew him as the moon draws water…” (Lee 8).

8. Simile
“The Radley place fascinated Dill. In spite of our warnings it drew him as the moon draws water…” (Lee 8).
The house captured the boy’s attention with a power similar to the moon’s affect on tidal action.

9. Personification
“The remains of a picket drunkenly guarded the front yard” (Lee 10).
“The misery of the house began many years before Jem and I were born’ (LEE 11).
“Mr. Radley’s older son lived in Pensacola; he came home at Christmas, and he was one of the few people we ever saw enter or leave the place. From the day Mr. Radley took Arthur home, people say the house died” (Lee 14-15).
“The house was the same, droopy and sick, but as we stared down the street we thought we saw an inside shutter move. Flick. A tiny, almost invisible movement and the house was still” (Lee 19).

10. Personification
“The remains of a picket drunkenly guarded the front yard” (Lee 10).
“The misery of the house began many years before Jem and I were born’ (LEE 11).
“Mr. Radley’s older son lived in Pensacola; he came home at Christmas, and he was one of the few people we ever saw enter or leave the place. From the day Mr. Radley took Arthur home, people say the house died” (Lee 14-15).
“The house was the same, droopy and sick, but as we stared down the street we thought we saw an inside shutter move. Flick. A tiny, almost invisible movement and the house was still” (Lee 19).
What is left of the fence around the Radley house stands like someone who has had too much to drink.
The sadness of the place has a history.
Giving the house human characteristics sheds additional light on the author’s characterization of the people who live in the house.

11. Allusions/idiom
“Dill had seen Dracula*, a revelation that moved Jem to eye him with the beginning of respect” (Lee 9).
“Our first raid came to pass only because Dill bet Jem *The Gray Ghost against two *Tom Swifts that Jem wouldn’t get any farther than the Radley gate (Lee 16).

12. Allusions/idiom
“Dill had seen Dracula*, a revelation that moved Jem to eye him with the beginning of respect” (Lee 9).
“Our first raid came to pass only because Dill bet Jem *The Gray Ghost against two *Tom Swifts that Jem wouldn’t get any farther than the Radley gate (Lee 16).
* This is a reference to the 1931 movie, Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi.
* “…to eye him” in this ocntext means to judge someone with a new perspective.
*The Gray Ghost by Robert F. Schulkers included Seckatary Hawkins, a fictional character in a series of 11 children's novels published between 1921 and 1932.
* Tom Swift was the central character in five series of books by Edward Stratemeyer, first appearing in 1910.

13. Idiom or implied metaphor or both?
“Boo wasn’t crazy, he was high strung” (Lee 14-15).
“But there came a day when Atticus told us he’d wear us out if we made any noise in the yard…” (Lee 15).
“I hope you’ve got it through your head that he’ll kill us each and every one, Dill Harris,” said Jem… (Lee 17).
“I contented my self with asking Jem if he’d lost his mind” (Lee 24)

14. Idiom or implied metaphor or both?
“Boo wasn’t crazy, he was high strung” (Lee 14-15).
“But there came a day when Atticus told us he’d wear us out if we made any noise in the yard…” (Lee 15).
“I hope you’ve got it through your head that he’ll kill us each and every one, Dill Harris,” said Jem… (Lee 17).
“I contented my self with asking Jem if he’d lost his mind” (Lee 24)
high strung – nervous or easy agitated (like a violin?)
wear us out – to punish by beating or whipping (worn out rear end of a pair of pants?)
got it through your head – to have processed information and understood (in one ear?)
lost his mind – to become unable to understand (thoughts wandering in the woods?)

15. Idiom
“Miss Caroline was no more than twenty-one. She had bright auburn hair, pink cheeks, and wore crimson fingernail polish. She also wore high-heeled pumps and a red-and-white-striped dress. She looked and smelled like a peppermint drop. She boarded across the street one door down from us in Miss nervous Atkinson's upstairs front room, and when Miss Maudie introduced us to her, Jem was in a haze for days” (Lee 21).

16. simile/idiom
“Miss Caroline was no more than twenty-one. She had bright auburn hair, pink cheeks, and wore crimson fingernail polish. She also wore high-heeled pumps and a red-and-white-striped dress. She looked and smelled like a peppermint drop. She boarded across the street one door down from us in Miss nervous Atkinson's upstairs front room, and when Miss Maudie introduced us to her, Jem was in a haze for days” (Lee 21).
Effective characterization of Miss Caroline using a simile.
To be “in a haze” means to be in a state of confusion or under the influence of a particular thought.

17. Simile
“It must have been two o’clock. The moon was setting and the lattice-work shadows were fading into fuzzy nothingness. Jem’s white shirt-tail dipped and bobbed like a small ghost dancing away to escape the coming morning” (Lee 57).

18. Simile
“It must have been two o’clock. The moon was setting and the lattice-work shadows were fading into fuzzy nothingness. Jem’s white shirt-tail dipped and bobbed like a small ghost dancing away to escape the coming morning” (Lee 57).
As Jem returns to the house in the dark, his flying clothing offers a deathly image.

19. Idiom
“…but then Uncle Jack was strange. He said he was trying to get Miss Maudie's goat, that he had been trying unsuccessfully for forty years....” (Lee 58).

20. Idiom
“…but then Uncle Jack was strange. He said he was trying to get Miss Maudie's goat, that he had been trying unsuccessfully for forty years....” (Lee 58).
To get one's goat is to make a person disgusted or angry (Did anyone look through pages to see if Miss Maudie had a “literal” goat?)
Who is told later not to ‘let ‘em get your goat?” (Lee 101)

21. Hyperbole
“The world's endin', Atticus! Please do something-!” I dragged him to the window and pointed (Lee 86)
"Well how'd you feel if you'd been shut up for a hundred years with nothin' but cats to eat? I bet he's got a beard down to here-".(Lee 62).

22. Hyperbole
“The world's endin', Atticus! Please do something-!” I dragged him to the window and pointed (Lee 86)
"Well how'd you feel if you'd been shut up for a hundred years with nothin' but cats to eat? I bet he's got a beard down to here-".(Lee 62).
Scout’s surprise at seeing snow made her think the impossible had occurred.
Dill’s imagination offered an unrealistic passage of time, demands of an appetite, and growth of facial hair!

23. Metaphor/Personification/Personification
…insects splashing against the screen were Boo Radley’s insane fingers picking the wire to pieces; the chinaberry trees were malignant, hovering, alive (Lee 74).
“When I went back to get my breeches…they were folded across the fence…like they were expectin’ me”(Lee 78).

24. Metaphor/Personification/Personification
…insects splashing against the screen were Boo Radley’s insane fingers picking the wire to pieces; the chinaberry trees were malignant, hovering, alive (Lee 74).
“When I went back to get my breeches…they were folded across the fence…like they were expectin’ me”(Lee 78).
Bugs hitting the screen become Boo’s fingers.
Trees are intent on harm.
Jem’s pants want him to come back for them.

25. Metaphor
“Less than two weeks later we found a whole package of chewing gum, which we enjoyed; the fact that everything on the Radley Place was poison having slipped Jem’s memory” (Lee ).

26. Metaphor
“Less than two weeks later we found a whole package of chewing gum, which we enjoyed; the fact that everything on the Radley Place was poison having slipped Jem’s memory” (Lee ).
Both Scout and Jem bought into the urban/local legend that concluded that any touching or taking any item on the Radley property might result in death.

27. Simile/personification
“He walked quickly, but I thought he moved like an underwater swimmer: time had slowed to a nauseating crawl.” (Lee 127).

28. Simile/personification
“He walked quickly, but I thought he moved like an underwater swimmer: time had slowed to a nauseating crawl.” (Lee 127).
Atticus seemed to walked very slowly toward the mad dog, Tim Johnson. (Why was the dog called Tim Johnson?)
Individual minutes determined their on speed so slowly that watching the action was sickening or caused an unpleasant physical reaction.

29. Which figures of speech are used here?
“Aunt Alexandra’s vision of my deportment involved… I should be a ray of sunshine in my father’s lonely life. I suggested that one could be a ray of sunshine in pants just as well, but Aunty said that one had to behave like a sunbeam, that I was born good but had grown progressively worse every year” (Lee 108).
Is there “indirect characterization” here?

30. What two figures of speech Harper Lee use here?
“ The varmints had a lean time of it, for the Ewells gave the dump a thorough gleaning every day, and the fruits of their industry (those that were not eaten) made the plot of ground around the cabin look like the playhouse of an insane child…” (Lee 228).
gleaning: gathering after harvest (typically describing animals that go after what is left in a field after the harvest; does the use of that verb/gerund add to the characterization of the Ewells?)

31. What figurative language is used here?
“Mrs. Merriweather played her voice like an organ; every word she said received its full measure;” (Lee 309).
How is the idea extended? What effective word is used to extended the characterization of her voice?
“When Miss Maudie was angry, her brevity was icy. Something had made her deeply angry, and her gray eyes were as cold as her voice” (Lee 312).
Again the description is extended; what does the characterization suggest?

32. If you were randomly give a group of words, could you quickly create figures of speech?
Secret
Tiger
Frown
Thunder
Games

33. The tiger secretly frowned as the games thundered on.
If you were randomly give a group of words, could you quickly create figures of speech?
Secret
Tiger
Frown
Thunder
Games
The tiger secretly frowned as the games thundered on.

34. Natural images of mockingbirds:
Unnatural image of a mockingbird:

35. Chapter 10
When he gave us our air-rifles Atticus wouldn't teach us to shoot. Uncle Jack instructed us in the rudiments thereof; he said Atticus wasn't interested in guns.Atticus said to Jem one day, 'I'd rather you shoot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.
“Your father's right,” she said. “Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (Lee 119)
Chapter 30
Atticus looked like he needed cheering up. I ran to him and hugged him and
kissed him with all my might.
“Yes sir, I understand,” I reassured him. 'Mr. Tate was right.”
Atticus disengaged himself and looked at me, 'What do you mean?'
“Well, it'd be sort of like shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn't it?” (Lee 370)
A motif is a recurring feature in a work of fiction (simple examples: a name, an image,
or a phrase); a conspicuous recurring element (complex examples: a type of incident, a
literary device, an allusion, or verbal formula, which appears a number of times in the text.
For instance, the ugly girl who turns out to be a beautiful princess is a common motif in folklore,
and the man fatally bewitched by a fairy lady is another folkloric motif. The mockingbird
imagery in To Kill a Mockingbird acts as a motif. Light and dark imagery in Romeo and Juliet
functioned as a motif. Juliet is described as the sun capable of banishing the “envious
moon” and transforming the night into day (2.1.46) Their troubles are captured in the
lines: “More light and light, more dark and dark our woes” (3.5.36).
Motif

36. Suppose you had an essay assignment to pick a specific complex issue from the text and explain that issue in detail.
What kinds of research would you do?
Where would you start?
How thorough would you have to be?

37. First, you would find all of the evidence in the text that discusses the issue.
Then, reread and reread those passages until you understand what the text offers.
Next, use a dictionary (online or otherwise) and define any word or term you do not understand.
Now, do research outside the text to explore the idea.
Then, compose the essay.
If the research question was “What does entailment mean,” where do you begin?

38. Entailment discussions form the text:
(Ch 2: 26 – 28)
…After a dreary conversation in our living room one night about his entailment, before Mr. Cunningham left he said, "Mr. Finch, I don't know when I'll ever be able to pay you.”
…When I asked Jem what entailment was, and Jem described it as a condition of having your tail in a crack, I asked Atticus if Mr. Cunningham would ever pay us.
…Entailment was only a part of Mr. Cunningham's vexations. The acres not entailed were mortgaged to the hilt, and the little cash he made went to interest.
“…Miss Scout, if you give me your attention I'll tell you what entailment is. Jem's definitions are very nearly accurate sometimes."
(Ch 15: 204 – 206)
…"Hey, Mr. Cunningham. How's your entailment gettin' along?"
…Mr. Cunningham displayed no interest in his son, so I tackled his entailment once more in a last-ditch effort to make him feel at home.
…“Entailments are bad,” I was advising him, when I slowly awoke to the fact that I was addressing the entire aggregation.
… "Well, Atticus, I was just sayin' to Mr. Cunningham that entailments are bad an' all that, but you said not to worry, it takes a long time sometimes that you all'd ride it out together . . ." I was slowly drying up, wondering what idiocy I had committed. Entailments seemed all right enough for living room talk.

39. In “Chapter 2,” Mr. Cunningham and Atticus Finch discuss, in a “dreary conversation” the entailment of Mr. Cunningham’s property. Scout brings this subject up in the narration as she muses over how she might explain what a Cunningham is to Miss Caroline. What Scout hears is that Mr. Cunningham may not be able to pay Atticus for his legal services. Scout asks Jem what entailment means and he responds with a clever idiom: “a condition of having your tail in a crack.” Atticus tells Scout later that ‘Jem’s definitions are very nearly accurate sometimes." The issue of entailment comes back into play in “Chapter 15” in the scene before the jail when men in the community, including Mr. Cunningham, have come to lynch Tom Robinson. Scout diffuses the situation by asking Mr. Cunningham, “How's your entailment gettin' along?" and asking about his son. Entailment is never made clear in any of the discussions.
Entailment is an old-fashioned form of bequeathing real property. Entailed land (aka Fee Tail) can only be inherited by the owner's issue (legitimate children). The law was created as a way to keep an estate intact for multiple generations. Since the land could not be sold or easily borrowed against, some individuals would be rich in land but still heavily in debt. Only four US States recognize Fee Tails and most European nations have done away with them. The few nations that still recognize entailed estates only recognize existing ones and do not allow new ones to be created.

40. Entailment or fee tail is the process in which a property cannot be sold, changed by a will, or otherwise used for monetary gain by the owner. The property passes by law to the legal heir of the owner upon his death. Entailment was used to keep properties in the main line of succession in a family. Also, the heir of an entailed property could not sell the land or give the property to an illegitimate child. So, no matter what the owner’s financial situation might be, that person was bound or legally tied to the land.
Cunningham had been to Atticus to resolve an entailment problem. The land Cunningham had was likely entailed, meaning that he might not be the clear owner and thus could neither sell nor mortgage the property to raise money. Again, Harper Lee does not make the actual circumstances clear. Another possibility is Cunningham risked losing land if he was not a clear heir to the original owner (i.e. oldest child or was illegitimate). Later on when the lynching party gathers outside the jail, Scout mentions that “entailments are bad” even though she does not clearly understand what an entailment is. Bringing up this complex issue caused the men in the lynch mob to think about what they were actually doing and their circumstances.