- Chapter 23 of To Kill a
Mockingbird presents a flashback (actually a
flashback within a flashback) in which Stephanie Crawford narrates the spitting incident
involving Bob Ewell and Atticus. - Another device is
metaphor (or analogy) in which Bob is compared to a
soldier, while Atticus is described for his peaceful
ways:
readability="5">Mr. Ewell was a veteran of an obscure
war
- Other
metaphorical language
includes:readability="6">Jem, see if you can stand in Bob Ewell’s shoes a
minute
- There is
also much color imagery in Chapter 23 (black, white,
rainbow):readability="16">The one place where a man ought to get a square
deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but
people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box. As you grow
older, you’ll see white men cheat
black men every day of your life, but let me tell you
something and don’t you forget it— whenever a white man
does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich
he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man
is trash...There's also
symbolism (pocket watch symbolizes "time"):readability="14">Atticus’s fingers went to his
watchpocket. “No it didn’t,” he said, more to himself than
to us. “That was the one thing that made me think, well, this may be the shadow of a
beginning. That jury took a few hours. An inevitable
verdict, maybe, but usually it takes ‘em just a few
minutes. This
time—”Chapter
24 contains much verbal irony. Here's a classic case of
understatement (pointing out the obvious for comic
effect):readability="5">“Where are your britches
today?”“Under my
dress.”There's a
simile:readability="5">Mrs. Merriweather played her voice like an
organAnd situational irony
(the unexpected happens):readability="6">I’d let Tom Robinson go so quick the Missionary
Society wouldn’t have time to catch its breath.Tom's
dead.
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