To Kill A Mockingbird Literary Elements Essay

Submitted By Avenger77
Words: 670
Pages: 3

Unit 3EA2
Sadie Whitney
Mr. Diggins
4/1/15

Loss of Innocence Loss of innocence is a recurring theme throughout the book for both Jem and
Scout. One of the loss of innocence scenes is when Jem destroys Mrs. Dubose’s flowers because she had been calling Atticus names, just like almost everyone in
Maycomb. Jem snaps and caves in to the what recent events have brought to
Maycomb. This passage shows multiple literary elements. The most obvious literary elements are imagery, setting, and external conflict. These paragraphs come to show just how easy it is to spot these literary elements. So now i’ll show how I found three simple literary elements in this small passage. In this passage, multiple literary elements can be seen. For example, Imagery is one of the literary elements found in this passage. Imagery is “the descriptive or figurative language used to create word pictures.” In the passage it says,
“He did not begin to calm down until he had cut the tops off every camelia bush in Mrs. Dubose owned, until the ground was littered with green buds and leaves.” This helps show a picture in your head and shows how jem might of felt when he destroyed the camellias.
In a book, to describe the setting, the author uses imagery. Imagery is often the only

way of imagining the scenes. Without imagery and setting the book would be really boring and plain. Setting is one of the most important elements of a book or movie. The setting is,
“the time and place in which a story happens.” Setting can change the attitudes of the character, their opinions, their tone of voice, setting can change everything. One quote is,
“He did not begin to calm down until he had cut the tops off every camelia bush in
Mrs. Dubose owned, until the ground was littered with green buds and leaves.” This quote fits with imagery perfectly by describing vividly what Jem is doing. When the book describes Jem destroying the camellias, it tells me that the setting has changed. Mrs In some cases changing the setting can either cause or solve conflicts. Another literary term found in this passage is the external conflict. The external conflict is the “struggle between a literary or dramatic character and an outside force.”
This passage shows Jem trying to cope with his conflict (the people of Maycomb.) Both
Jem and Scout have experienced children and adults calling Atticus names. In this case, Jem breaks after Mrs. Dubose calls Atticus a name.
“We had just come to her gate when Jem snatched my baton