Mockingbird Motif

After reading To Kill a Mockingbird the definition of motif was clear to me. I often mix up symbolism and motif however, the novel showed me that a motif enhances the meaning of things or themes within the story. The novel helped me understand motif since it explained the meaning of the motif within the themes and actions that portrayed the themes. The motif really helped me grasp the true meaning behind To Kill a Mockingbird. The part where I understood the motif the most was when Tom Robinson was caught while trying to escape the prison. Just like a mockingbird he was shot dead when he was in fact completely innocent; he was the victim. If the novel hadn't given examples to enhance the motif I wouldn't have been able to follow the story line and the meaning behind the novel.The motif is very simple: a mockingbird. It's thought to be a sin to kill a mockingbird since the bird is purely innocent and hasn't done anything harmful or wrong. You can relate that to life; it's wrong to blame someone who is innocent.

Without the motif the many themes within the pages of To Kill a Mockingbird would be pointless. All the themes follow the motif that it's wrong to blame something/someone who is not guilty. Throughout the book the motif is spread out and explained through different themes such as prejudice in all forms, standing in someone's shoes, and growing up. When you're being prejudice you're against a person, thing, or even a race and that theme was showed through Tom Robinson's case and through the Cunninghams even. People of lower class and race were blamed for things they did not do. As you grow up you realize things and as little kids Jem and Scout blamed Boo for doing things that he didn't do. After Scout realized Boo/Arthur had killed Bob Ewell she said that it wasn't Boo/Arthur because she didn't want Boo to go through court and be blamed. He had already been through many hard times and he was trying to protect Scout and Jem, not harm them. The motif is the base of the themes and shows that each theme/issue is not right and that blaming others/things for your problems could lead to unjust conclusions.

Symbolism (Extra Credit)

The character I portrayed was Mayella Ewell. The symbol I chose was a plain looking bird who is trapped in its cage. Mayella is of lower class so, like the bird who is plain, she is thought of to be an outcast from society. Also the cage represents how trapped she is. In her house she is the only one who tries to make progress, but her father, Bob Ewell, beats her, which makes her crave attention and freedom from her home and family. Once Tom Robinson shows kindness towards her and acts like he's releasing her, her urge for freedom becomes great and she acts rash. However, her actions caused her to feel a great amount of guilt, and that guilt turns into a new cage that will keep her trapped within her own feelings.

Life Lesson

Throughout my life I've heard many different tidbits of advice such as don't eat yellow snow. Although that piece of advice has stayed with me, that's not the advice that has really helped and impacted me. When I was younger and I was fighting with my sister or arguing with a friend my mom would always say, "remove yourself from the situation." Whenever she said that it usually meant she was getting impatient and needed us to take a chill pill. By stepping down and leaving the argument alone you can calm down and clearly think out the problem without anger and rage blocking out your sense of right and wrong. I don't know how many times this quote has been used by my mom, but all I can infer is that it's been over used for many years now. Even though it's over used I never get tired of hearing this quote since it reminds me to give myself time to before jumping to conclusions.

To many this lesson would seem pointless and inferior compared to other life lessons, but to me it holds important meaning. As a child I would always jump to conclusions and get angry, but bit by bit I learned to remove myself rather than dwell on and continually pester whoever happened to be the unlucky victim of my complaints. Today I do occasionally keep a subject rather than dropping it, but rarely do I ever get to the point in a fight where anger is seeping from me. Many times I've kept my temper and avoided unnecessary actions; it even helps when others are arguing and, all I tell them is "drop it" or "stop talking about it." As a child I didn't understand how walking away would help; I just thought it was another way of saying 'I surrender, you win.' It took me a few years to decipher the true meaning, but now I hold it close. When you keep at it you or others can get seriously injured, physically, mentally, or emotionally which really isn't necessary. The best way to solve differences is to calmly and patiently discuss with the other person in order to clarify what you disagree on, not jumping to conclusions and acting on a whim.

My Best Friend!

I hate playing favorites, but my best friend out of ALL my friends would have to be Julia! She has medium-length curly brown hair and brown eyes. When Julia doesn't know a person very well it's challenging for her to open up to them completely. She speaks spanish fluently and detests peanut butter because, in her opinion, it looks strange. She always has an aura of peacefulness and cheeriness surrounding her, so whenever I'm with her I can't help but be happy and relaxed just like her. One thing that I advise a person not to do is to mispronounce her name. Once you mispronounce it she says, "It's pronounced Hulia NOT Julia, gosh!" Also, she recently decided to become a vegetarian and stop eating meat; that ties in with her don't pollute and keep the earth clean motto.

At first you would perceive Julia as an introvert since she can keep to herself when she doesn't know you, however with time her personality morphs into more of an ambivert and she will begin to open up like a flower early in the morning. Once Julia opens up you see that she's intense and strong-willed; her will power won't let her give up easily. I'll admit she's a bit of a hippie; not a bad drug-user hippie, but one who cares about nature and others. She's very attentive to people's emotions and can sense when something is wrong. For her being an altruist comes naturaly; she doesn't have to force herself to care or worry about others in order to seem nice, in fact, it's like she has an extra sixth sense.

Early Memory

Imagine a sparkling, clean kitchen that was freshly cleaned. Two little girls are opening cupboards and pulling out various ingredients; what they are making is a mystery. Those two teeny siblings were my sister and me. I don't remember our ages, but I do remember the story in great detail. For some odd reason we decided not to use the table/counter to mix the dough and to flour the "cookies"; we used the floor instead. I'm not sure whether the floor was clean or not at the time, but we didn't care, obviously.

You know how most normal cookies are made with sugar, flour, eggs, milk, water, etc? Well mine and my sister's cookies were made with JUST water and flour. Now just imagine how horrid and icky that goopy cookie would be. To make the creation even worse we didn't bake the cookies; we just cut them out using a cookie cutter and gave them to my mom and dad to eat. That seems just evil to me now that I really think of it. I mean my mom and dad HAD to eat the cookies to seem nice since that's their role in being parents.

Another part of this memory is my parents emotions. When they saw the hugungous mess of flour and gloopy batter covering all the tile in the kitchen they were pretty mad. They didn't show it too much around us, but, really, who wouldn't be mad if their kitchen was completely covered in disgusting cookies? I'm pretty sure everyone would be frustrated at that point. Thankfully my cooking skills have improved since then, and I'm now perfectly capable of making cookies...as long as they're premade and ready to throw into the oven!

Far From the Madding Crowd: Tone

Hm why did the author use tone? Well, the author used the tone to help bring the characters to life and to help explain their stand point. For example, the main character Gabriel was, at one point, a good shepard with enough money to get by, but he still wasn't quite as high social wise as he could have been. Through the authors word choice you realize that he is actually a bit on the pathetic side, especially when it comes to his obsession with Bathsheba. The author continues to belittle Gabriel throughout the book by bringing in descriptive characters who continually size down his part and importance withink the novel. Basically the authors tone is patronizing since he's looking down on Gabriel and every small action he puts out. Also, most of the other characters that are introduced have more importance when it comes to social standings and importance, and if there is a character who is lower standing then Gabriel seems then, of course, Gabriel must somehow become involved with him or her. By using the tone as the dominant literary element you can begin to understand the characters emotions and how they feel towards to many events within Far From the Madding Crowd and towards one another.

Outside Reading!

The novel that I have chosen to explore is Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy, and I'm not quite sure if I'm enjoying it or not yet. A part of me likes the novel, yet a different part of me dislikes it, mainly because I wonder if I will really finish it by October 12 since it's slow paced and one of the longer books on the list. For awhile I dreaded reading Far From the Madding Crowd since I'd heard it wasn't all that good, but after the first few chapters I began to really take hold of the plot and give understanding it a try. While just getting through this novel is a challenge, the even bigger feat is deciphering it. Since the diction is high ,and you constantly have to stop to find a definition of some unfamiliar word, but when you finish finding the word then usually you're out of your "reading zone" and don't feel like reading any longer, so you put the book down and think, "I'll come back in an hour." when really you don't come back at all. Also, while your reading you feel as if you've read for hours and have succeeded in reading a good portion of your book when you've only read maybe 30 pages or so; you're pretty dismal when you realize your slow progress and the amount of time that has passed.

The dominant literary element is a tough one to choose in this novel. There's quite a bit of imagery, however the tone is important also, so I'm still a bit between which to choose; I'm more towards the tone though. The imagery within Far From the Madding Crowd doesn't have much significance or meaning other than a description of a scene, person, or object, no symbolic meaning or relation to an important aspect of the novel. The tone seems to be deeper within the novel, but it is in fact there, hiding, waiting to be found.

In my opinion Thomas Hardy is using the tone to help compare the main character to later introduced characters, and show his social standing in comparison to theirs. Gabriel, the main character, comes off as a nobody and Hardy uses word choice to convey that message. Another thing is that the author seems a bit biased towards people who are lower in the social standings by implying that they aren't capable of keeping hold of what they have. The author wrote Gabriel as a character who is lower than all the other involved characters within the novel, and describes him as "just a shepard" and many variations of that. Gabriel is even lower than the women in the book and at the time that Far From the Madding Crowd is set men were believed to have more authority than the women. So far the tone has stayed the same and has not once shifted, but you never know when things within a book could change.