Abstract:To Kill a Mockingbird, which is Harper Lee’s representative work, was born in the era of African-American Civil Rights Movement, on that occasion when the blacks and whites in United States conflicted seriously. The story focuses on the trial of the black man Tom whom the hero, Atticus Finch, defends. Not only does it display the social reality and assails the social evils but also exposes the dark side of human nature, advocates punishing evil and promoting moral values. In this novel, Harper Lee uses an ocean of symbolic skills to express and deepen this theme. Through analysis of Atticus, being a lawyer, being a villager of Maycomb and being a father, the thesis will point out that the hero who shines bright side of humanity is the symbol of good and love, morality and justice, and convinces readers that there is still good and justice in human being. The important thing is coexistence of good and evil so we should appreciate the good qualities and understand the bad qualities by treating others with sympathy and trying to see life from their perspectives.
Key Words: Harper Lee; Mockingbird; symbolic skill; Atticus Finch; humanism; morality and justice
摘要:《杀死一只知更鸟》是哈伯•李的代表作，诞生在黑人民权运动的时代背景下，当时正值美国美国国内黑人与白人矛盾冲突激化之际。故事围绕主题事件即主人公阿迪克斯•芬奇为黑人辩护的审判案件展开,展现了当时的社会背景，抨击了社会的阴暗面，揭露了人性的阴暗面，提倡惩恶扬善的道德观。在这部小说中，哈伯•李运用大量丰富的象征手法充分表现和深化了这一主题。本论文将从哈伯•李的象征写作方法入手，通过对主人公芬奇作为一名律师、梅岗镇的村民和孩子的父亲进行三个方面分析，指出主人公象征着慈爱善良和公理公正，身上闪耀着人性的光辉,是道义的化身。通过对主人公的性格特征分析，让读者对人性的善良和正义坚定信心并且告知读者善良与罪恶并存，因而应该欣赏他人美德并以同情态度从他人的视角看待生活来理解他人的罪恶。
关键词：哈伯•李；象征手法；阿迪克斯•芬奇；人性；道义
The second question concerns characters of the hero and how the hero shows his high qualities. On the one hand, Atticus Finch is a justice lawyer through analysis of his action defended the black man Tom. Although his behavior of defending a black makes him the object of scorn in Maycomb, he never holds a grudge against villagers, and still cares for others equally. So he is a person who always understanding and forgiving others and always tries to appreciate the good qualities and understand the bad qualities. On the other hand, the way his educating children make him an open-minded and nonconformist father.
However, due to the limited possession of information and theoretical insights, there are still some limitations of the present study. Firstly, when analyzing the symbolic features in To Kill a Mockingbird, only two examples were cited. That is Mockingbird and Boo Radley. But also the symbolic features were not analyzed in form (context, ambiguity, color) and structure (words, paragraph, text).Moreover, in the discussion part of the dissertation, only three pieces of extracts are drawn from To Kill a Mockingbird to illustrate the hero in the novel’s symbolic meaning, which is relatively not enough for a close reading and lacks of convincing.
Despite the limitations mentioned above, further studies can be done by focusing on one aspect of mockingbird’s symbolic meaning. You can analyze it from different characters in the novel. In fact, several characters in the novel can be seen as Mockingbird, which represents different Mockingbird’s fate. Such as Boo Radley represents a Mockingbird who was suffering and experiencing pain but always crowing to others with kindness and love. The black man, T om Robinson, represents a kindhearted and enthusiastic Mockingbird but is destroyed by relentless racial discrimination. Mayella Ewell is a Mockingbird who is lonely, unhappy and has no freedom. In this way, more detailed discussion could be brought from the close reading of it.
