Realism - the theory of writing in which the familiar,
ordinary aspects of life are depicted in a matter of fact,
straightforward manner designed to reflect life as it
actually is. Realism often presents a careful description
of everyday life, often concerning itself with the lives of
the so-called middle or lower classes. According to
Henry James, the main tenet of realism is that writers
must not select facts in accord with preconceived
aesthetics or ethical ideals but, rather, record their
observations impartially and objectively. Realism
downplays plot in favour of character and to
concentrate on middle-class life and preoccupations. It
became an important tradition in theater through the
works of Ibsen and Shaw, among others. However,
realism is most often associated with the novel.
Realistic dialogue, therefore, is dialogue which
concerns itself with the ordinary lives of rather ordinary
people, although there must be something interesting
about the character or theme being developed.
Allusion - a reference, usually brief, often casual,
occasionally indirect, to a person, event, or condition
thought to be familiar (but sometimes actually obscure
or unknown) to the reader. This holds true especially
for the characters and events of mythology, legends,
and history. Association is an essential part of allusion.
The purpose of allusion is to bring a world of
experience outside the limitations of a statement to the
reader. Western writers often use Biblical allusions
also.
 Where is the Biblical allusion to the cup of the
Garden of Gethsemane in To Kill a Mockingbird?
Gothic Elements in To Kill a Mockingbird
The novel contains characteristics of the Gothic novel.
The most notable of them is the presence of a
mysterious recluse, Boo Radley, living in a foreboding
house:
The house . . . was once white with a deep front porch
and green shutters, but had along ago darkened to the
color of the slate-gray yard around it. Rain-rotted
shingles drooped over the eaves of the veranda; oak
trees kept the sun away. The remains of a picket
drunkenly guarded the front yard. . . . Inside the house
lived a malevolent phantom. People said he existed,
but Jem and I had never seen him. People said he
went out at night when the moon was down, and
peeped in windows. When people's azaleas froze in a
cold snap, it was because he had breathed on them.
Any stealthy small crimes committed in Maycomb were
his work."
.......Another characteristic is the suggestion that
supernatural powers are at work. For example, when
Jem mentions the term Hot Steam and Dill asks him to
define it, Scout reports Jem's answer as follows:
"Haven't you ever walked along a lonesome road at
night and passed by a hot place?" Jem asked Dill. "A
Hot Steam's somebody who can't get to heaven, just
wallows around on lonesome roads an' if you walk
through him, when you die you'll be one too, an' you'll
go around at night suckin' people's breath-- . . . If you
hafta go through one you say, 'Angel-bright, life-indeath; get off the road, don't suck my breath.' That
keeps 'em from wrapping around you—"
.......Other Gothic characteristics include a grotesque
presence, such as the mad dog; a seemingly unnatural
occurrence, such as the snowstorm; ventures into the
unknown, such as the children's invasion of the Radley
property on a dark night; and a frightening encounter,
such as the one the children experience with Bob Ewell
on Halloween night.
Structure and Style ~ episodic nature
Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird in episodes
resembling short stories after introducing her family
and recounting some of its history. However, the
central theme—focusing on the lessons a little girl
learns about the real world as she grows up in her own
idyllic world—unites these episodes into a single story.
Smooth transitions link one episode to the next.
Examples of episodes are Scout’s first day at school,
the children’s invasion of the Radley property, the
snowstorm, the fire, Christmas at Finch’s landing, the
shooting of the rabid dog, the encounter with Mrs.
Dubose, Sunday services at Calpurnia’s church, the
gathering of the lynch mob, the trial and verdict, and
Bob Ewell’s retaliation.
Lee divides the story into two parts, the first centering
on Scout’s adventures and the lessons she learns from
them and the second centering on the lessons Scout
learns from her exposure to racism and injustice during
the rape trial and its aftermath.
Lee writes in easy-to-understand prose characterized
by vivid descriptions and wit, as in the following
paragraph from Chapter 2 about her first day of school
in the first grade:
Miss Caroline began the day by reading us a story
about cats. The cats had long conversations with one
another, they wore cunning little clothes and lived in a
warm house beneath a kitchen stove. By the time Mrs.
Cat called the drugstore for an order of chocolate
malted mice the class was wriggling like a bucketful of
catawba worms. Miss Caroline seemed unaware that
the ragged, denim-shirted and floursack-skirted first
grade, most of whom had chopped cotton and fed hogs
from the time they were able to walk, were immune to
imaginative literature.
After discovering that Scout is already quite literate—
Scout gives a demonstration by reading the stockmarket quotations from The Mobile Register—Miss
Caroline assumes her father taught her and asks her to
tell him not to teach her anymore because it would
interfere with her method: using flash cards that say
"cat," "rat," and other one-syllable words. But Scout
says her father "hasn't taught me anything," then
apologizes for her advanced skill in a paragraph that
further demonstrates the author's wit and vigorous
style:
I mumbled that I was sorry and retired meditating upon
my crime. I never deliberately learned to read, but
somehow I had been wallowing illicitly in the daily
papers. . . . Now that I was compelled to think about it,
reading was just something that came to me, as
learning to fasten the seat of my union suit without
looking around, or achieving two bows from a snarl of
shoelaces.
Lee also writes dialogue seasoned skillfully with the
patois of southern whites and blacks, as in the
following passage in which Calpurnia, the Finch
family's black cook, scolds Scout for poking fun at the
way her classmate Walter Cunningham drenches his
food in molasses while eating lunch at the Finch house:
"There's some folks who don't eat like us," she
whispered fiercely, "but you ain't called on to contradict
'em at the table when they don't. That boy's yo'
comp'ny and if he wants to eat up the tablecloth you let
him, you hear?"
"He ain't company, Cal, he's just a Cunningham—"
"Hush your mouth! Don't matter who they are, anybody
sets foot in this house's yo' comp'ny, and don't you let
me catch you remarkin' on their ways like you was so
high and mighty."
Lee often uses such snippets of dialogue to underscore
a lesson Scout learns about life—in this case, that
people come in many varieties and have all kinds of
likes and dislikes. Pouring molasses on a plateful of
food isn't wrong, she learns; it is just different.
JUXTAPOSITION: The arrangement of two or more
ideas, characters, actions, settings, phrases, or words
side-by-side or in similar narrative moments for the
purpose of comparison, contrast, rhetorical effect,
suspense, or character development.
We will look at mirroring pairs and foil pairs in To Kill a
Mockingbird