Leon's English Journal

The use of allusion in “To kill a mockingbird”

Harper Lee uses allusion in “To kill a Mockingbird” to expose the hypocrisy of the society in Maycomb county. An example is where Miss Gates says “There are no people better than the Jews, and why Hitler doesn’t see that is a mystery to me”. In this quotation Harper Lee alludes to the holocaust and mistreatment of Jews during World War 2.

This exposes the hypocrisy of Maycomb county as Miss Gates sympathises for the Jewish community and even states that they were pushed out of there own country. However, she can not sympathise for the black community, even though they were pushed out there own country during the triangular trade of the African community, and they have been mistreated through slavery.

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One response to “The use of allusion in “To kill a mockingbird””

  1. Christopher Waugh Avatar
    Christopher Waugh

    This is a clear expression of the use of allusion – it uses reference to specifics from the text and encompasses the ideas with precision.

    The area for development comes in the second paragraph. What do you mean by “The Middle passage”? I suggest a second quotation would be appropriate – and also be careful of your homophones: their, they’re and there.

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