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Harper Lee employs several narrative devices in To Kill a Mockingbird to explore the themes of prejudice, innocence, and moral growth. She uses these devices to effectively critique the social fabric of the American South.
Retrospective First-Person Point of View
The novel is narrated from a retrospective first-person perspective. It is told by an older, mature Jean Louise “Scout” Finch looking back on her childhood. This device is established in the novel’s opening lines: “When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident.”
This dual perspective allows Lee to blend the innocent, unvarnished observations of a young girl with the reflective wisdom of an adult. The narrative filters the toxic racism of the 1930s South through the eyes of a child who has not yet absorbed these prejudices to expose the sheer absurdity and learned nature of bigotry.
Dramatic Irony
We have established that the primary lens of the story is the young Scout. Harper Lee banks on this naive narrator to utilise dramatic irony. There are situations in the novel where the reader grasps the reality of an event long before the narrator does. A prime example occurs outside the Maycomb jail when the lynch mob confronts Atticus. Scout bursts into the circle of angry, “shinnied up” men and politely attempts to make conversation with Mr. Cunningham about his son and his legal entailments. Scout is completely unaware of the deadly danger her father is in, yet her innocent intervention forces the men to recognise their own humanity and disperse.
Similarly, dramatic irony highlights the hypocrisy of the town, such as when Scout is confused as to how her teacher, Miss Gates, can vehemently hate Adolf Hitler for persecuting the Jews, yet turn around and make racist comments about Maycomb’s Black citizens.
Symbolism
Lee relies on symbolism to carry the thematic weight of the text. “The mockingbird” is the central symbol of the novel. It represents pure innocence that is destroyed by the evils of society. Atticus explicitly tells his children that “it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” because they do no harm and only make music for people to enjoy. After Tom Robinson’s death, Mr. Underwood writes an editorial likening his murder to the “senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children.” Boo Radley is also a mockingbird figure; when Sheriff Tate decides to hide Boo’s heroism to protect him from public scrutiny, Scout perfectly understands. She observes that exposing him would “be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird.”
“The mad dog” (Tim Johnson) is another discernible symbol in the novel. This rabid dog that staggers down the street represents the “disease” of racism that infects Maycomb. Just as the town is paralysed by its ingrained prejudice, the neighbourhood hides behind closed doors. Atticus, revealed to be the “deadest shot in Maycomb County,” is the only man capable of stepping into the street to kill the dog. This task directly mirrors his lonely moral battle to defend Tom Robinson in the courtroom.
Then, there is the symbol of “the snowman.” When Maycomb experiences an unusual snowfall, Jem constructs a snowman out of a base of dark mud, which he then covers with white snow. This “Absolute Morphodite” is a subtle visual symbol of the intertwined nature of black and white populations in Maycomb. It basically says that beneath the superficial “white” exterior, the foundation is the same earth.
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is used to build suspense and unify the novel’s two distinct halves (the childhood mystery of Boo Radley and the adult tragedy of the trial). The very first sentence of the novel, “When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow,” plants a seed of anticipation that is not resolved until the final chapters.
After the trial, Bob Ewell’s vow to get Atticus “if it took the rest of his life” and his ominous remark after Tom Robinson’s death that it “made one down and about two more to go” heavily foreshadow his cowardly attack on the Finch children in the dark.
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Allusion
The story is grounded in its 1930s Southern setting through carefully chosen historical and literary allusions. The children’s imaginations are fuelled by popular literature of the era, like Tarzan, The Rover Boys, and Tom Swift.
More significantly, the plot of the children’s book The Gray Ghost is used at the very end of the novel as a direct parallel to Boo Radley. Atticus summarises the book by noting they chased a character who hadn’t actually done anything wrong, and when they finally saw him, “he was real nice.”
Historical allusions to the economic “crash,” the NRA (National Recovery Act), and lingering resentments over the Civil War (with references to Stonewall Jackson and Appomattox) constantly remind the reader of the economic and historical forces shaping Maycomb’s prejudices.
Suspense
Lee manipulates the pacing of the narrative to stretch out time and heighten suspense during climactic, life-or-death moments. When Atticus steps into the street to shoot the rabid dog, Scout notes that “time had slowed to a nauseating crawl” and describes Atticus moving “like an underwater swimmer.” The author deliberately recalls this exact sensory technique when the jury returns with Tom Robinson’s verdict, with Scout noting the event had a “dreamlike quality” where the jury moved “like underwater swimmers.”
This technique of dragging out time is used one final time during the pitch-black, agonisingly slow walk home from the Halloween pageant, where every rustle of cotton and scraped shoe builds terror before Bob Ewell finally attacks.
Framing Device
The entire novel is structured within a framing device, functioning as a circular narrative. The first paragraph of the text begins by stating, “When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.” The narrator, an older Scout, notes that when enough years had gone by, she and Jem would sometimes discuss the events leading up to his accident, with Jem claiming it began the summer Dill arrived and gave them the idea of making Boo Radley come out. The narrative then flashes back to tell the story of these intervening years. It catches up to the present at the end of the novel when Bob Ewell attacks the children and breaks Jem’s arm. This structural device neatly brackets the children’s coming-of-age journey.
Parallel Plots
Harper Lee utilises two distinct narrative threads that run parallel to one another before colliding in the climax. The first plot revolves around the children’s childhood fascination with their reclusive neighbour, Boo Radley. The second, more serious plot canters on the adult world of Maycomb, specifically Atticus’s defence of Tom Robinson and the ensuing wrath of Bob Ewell.
Both plots centre around a “mockingbird” figure: innocent, misunderstood outcasts who are persecuted by the town. These parallel plots converge on Halloween night when Bob Ewell, the antagonist of the trial plot, attacks the children, and Boo Radley, the central figure of the childhood plot, emerges from his house to save them.
Motif
Lee frequently uses the motif of childhood superstition and local folklore to mirror the irrational prejudices of the adult world. The children’s world is governed by beliefs in “haints,” incantations, secret signs, and “Hot Steams” (spirits who cannot get to heaven and wallow on lonesome roads sucking people’s breath). They also believe the wild rumours that Boo Radley dines on raw squirrels and breathes frost onto azaleas.
The children eventually outgrow these irrational, superstitious fears upon learning the truth about Boo. Using the same logic, Lee subtly suggests that the adult racism of Maycomb is similarly based on irrational, learned myths that can only be cured by education and empathy.
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Related:
- Plot Summary and Setting of To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Characters in To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Themes in To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Study Guide: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
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