Symbolism in To Kill A Mockingbird:
The Snowman: In To Kill A Mockingbird, the snowman represents the whites overpowering the blacks. The snow represents whites and the mud represents the blacks. The snowman brings out the purity and innocence of the people. When Tom Robinson was in court, Atticus knew that he didn’t have a chance because it had always been the whites winning over the blacks. Mayella made the judge believe her by fake crying and causing a scene. The snowman shows how Tom Robinson has been innocent and then killed. He was accused of rape, but all he did was work and not harm anyone else. The whites would always win because one black man cannot defeat the many whites against him.
The Mockingbird: The Mockingbird represents innocence and peace, so in a way killing a Mockingbird is like killing the innocence of another person. The Mockingbird represents peace because Mockingbirds don’t do anything but bring joy to people with their beautiful chirping. It counts as a sin because once someone kills one, they are killing something that hasn't harmed them. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, there are a few characters who had their innocence destroyed. Tom Robinson is an example of a Mockingbird because he was an innocent man who only worked and didn’t harm anyone. He was accused of rape and was later killed because of that. So with his innocence his life was also destroyed.
The Mad Dog: The mad dog (Tim Johnson) can represent racism. Tim is able to represent racism because Atticus is the only one to act against it, just like he was the only one to act against racism as a lawyer for Tom Robinson. The people in Maycomb are racist and that’s why they all have their doors closed when the mad dog comes near them, because racism could be a disease and closed doors represents how people are blocking out the disease. Atticus took off his glasses because he didn’t want to see himself kill the mad dog.He also wanted it to be a 50/50 shot at "killing racism." The mad dog could have also been able to represent Tom’s death because Tim Johnson and Tom Robinson sound alike and it could’ve been used to say the dog was Tom and Atticus not being able to prove him not guilty, killed him.
Miss Maudie’s Azaleas: The azaleas represent how Atticus refuses to judge anyone in Maycomb and looks for the good in them. Atticus is a friendly guy and all he wants is positive things in is community. So when people talk about are rude and have a bad behavior Atticus tells his children to accept and respect the views of others. The flowers is Atticus attitude and the most of the community.
Mayella's Red Geraniums: The red geraniums represent Tom Robinson’s death. Since the color red can symbolize death and blood and since Mayella had some geraniums that were red, that represented that Tom was going to lose the case and get killed while in jail. Mayella is the cause of Tom’s death since she accused him of raping her and since he is black everyone believed her since it was a blacks word against a whites word.