Christopher Smith
Mr. Lawton
“You Be Boo” Project
14 November 2013

Themes:

The items that I have chosen to represent To Kill a Mockingbird are a brown paper bag, a glass bottle, a mirror, a thumbtack, a star and a candle and the item that I have chosen to carry these items in is representative of a jail cell.
The brown paper bag represents Mr. Dolphus Raymond and it represents him not only for the reason that he carries Coca-Cola around in it while tricking other people of Maycomb that it’s alcohol, but also because the paper bag symbolizes Mr. Raymond as a person. Similar to the paper bag, on the outside, he looks like one thing and causes people to guess what is on the inside (or in his sense, what kind of person he is). However, similar to the lunch bag, nobody actually knows what is on the inside until he or she actually takes time to look inside. Just like people think that the paper bag has alcohol inside but it actually has soda, people think that Mr. Raymond is a drunk but on the inside he is a nice man who isn’t drunk at all, just a little out of the ordinary.
The glass bottle represents Jem. This bottle represents Jem because not only is it able to hold things together but it is also easily cracked and broken. Jem does his best to keep the family held together no matter what problems they face including Tom Robinson’s case, Bob Ewell’s threats and Scouts defiance to act like a lady. However strong Jem is though, he is easily “cracked” or broken by what he hears in town about his father and his family and once he realized the truths of reality. When Jem cries after the court hearing, he becomes “cracked” with the realization that his town is evil.
The mirror represents Atticus because when people come to him with their problems, he tells them to first look at themselves before blaming anything or anybody else. A mirror causes one to do the same thing and requires one to look at themselves, particularly their outer image whereas Atticus helps people look at their actions and morals. Such as, at Tom’s trial, Atticus talks to the jury very carefully, picking his words wisely and he successfully gets the men and women on the jury to look at themselves and the entire situation before making their vote on Tom. Although the verdict turned out to be the same, the jurors were much more thoughtful before voting Tom guilty.
The thumbtack represents Scout. A thumbtack can be visually seen in different angles, just like Scout. Normally, Scout is the pointed end of the tack and is very tough and eager to put somebody into his or her place if they say the wrong thing to her. However, the tack has a rounded edge, which represents Scout as a lady (specifically at the tea party). A person with a rounded edge is somebody with class and manners that is able to act their best at a given time. Scout represents her rounded edges at various points in the story including at Aunt Alexandra’s party but she also represents her pointed edge when defending Atticus to the other kids and threatening to fight Cecil.
The star represents Boo Radley. Boo Radley is much like a star in more than one way. A star looks down on the world all of the time, 24/7 but is not seen during the daylight hours and is only seen during the night when darkness engulfs the world. Boo Radley looks over the neighborhood all year and if he leaves the house, it is at night. Like a star, Boo Radley is always watching the neighborhood but does not communicate with the outside world. Boo Radley’s presence is never forgotten, though, which further connects him to this object.
The Yin-Yang pin represents one of the themes in the book, “good and evil coexist and nothing is all good and nothing is all evil”. In the yin-yang symbol, black stands for “bad” and white stands for “good”; the black dot in the white is the “bad” in the “good” and the white dot in the black