知更鸟的多重象征意义解读(3)

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The research of romanticism in To Kill a Mockingbird is done. For example, in the article “The Romantic Regionalism of Harper Lee”, Fred Erisman, the author, discussed a newer Emersonian romanticism adopted by Lee. Some scholars find out the character of Boo Radley pitiful yet unique, and James B. McMillan believes that the story of Boo shows the realistic value of Gothicism. The novel treats dark themes typically of the lugubrious Southern Gothic mode in a dry and witty voice. Yang Xi from Hebei Normal University focuses on the monographic study of Gothic features in To Kill a Mockingbird by analyzing from four aspects: the Gothic motif, Gothic setting, Gothic plot and Gothic character systematically in “The Gothic features in To Kill a Mockingbird”.

Malcolm Bradbury and Richard Sullivan hold the view that the unaffected young narrator Scout Finch “conveys the weight and burden of the society.”(Johnson 20) However, several reviewers are bothered by inconsistencies in the book’s narrative perspective. Sometimes the story is told by the adult Jean Louise Finch recalling her childhood, and sometimes readers seem to see through the eyes of young Scout Finch experiencing events as they happen. The mixed perspective of a sometimes mature, sometimes young narrator represents a compromise between more conventional third or first-person perspectives.

Atticus, who does the defense for the black man Tom Robinson against a false accusation of rape, is considered as a great gentle man of heroism by Professor Thomas Shaffer. However, Monroe Freedman argues that “Atticus Finch is revealed in the novel to be less that admirable: as a legislator, he makes no move to change the system of racial injustice and even seems to condone the actions of his bigoted fellow Southerners”(Johnson 188)

The tragic character Tom Robinson is shot when he is going to escape from prison, which reveals the

sickening racism in black people at that time. Racism in the novel has been discussed by many scholars. San Francisco Examiner assesses that Harper Lee builds the tranquil atmosphere of the Southern town and erupts a shocking lava of emotions tactfully. And Zhang Chan from Northeast Forestry University discusses this novel with her view of three basic principles of existentialism: “existence precedes essence”, “the world is absurd, and life is painful” and “free choices”.

Several scholars do researches on the growth of children—Scout Finch and her brother Jem Finch.

For example, “Pains in Growing” by Yan Jin and Wu Fangfang from NEU, “Harper Lee’s children-educated-views in To Kill a Mockingbird” by Xiao Xiao from Contemporary Educational Science. Gao Yang from Shandong Normal University did the study by analyzing the growth of the two children who finally grow up from innocence to maturity after a series of events.

The symbolic meanings of “mockingbird” in the novel catch readers’ eyes and raise their curiosity.

There is some research on symbolism, for example, Li Xiaoxi from Yanan University, analyzes three symbolic meanings of mockingbird in the novel: Boo Radley, a virtuous mockingbird suffering the pain and isolation, Tom Robinson, a killed mockingbird under the social injustice and racial discrimination, and Mayella, a hopeless mockingbird under impoverishment. And Yang Xi from Hebei Normal University presents the similar analysis of the multi-layered symbolic meanings of mockingbird in The Symbolic feature in To Kill a Mockingbird. Besides, Yang Xi discusses other three symbols in the novel: “white camellia”, “gun” and “door”. He presents his assessment as follows: “the white camellia symbolizes purity in the inner heart of human-beings”.(Yang Xi 86) The gun is one kind of weapon which has powerful force. And the gun in the novel stands for the constraint of power according to Yang Xi’s perspective. Sheriff Heck Tate convinces Atticus to shoot the rabid dog that wanders onto the Finchs’ street, despite his deep-seated aversion to guns. This aversion seems to stem from Atticus’s dislike of weapons as a matter of principle. “One-Shot Finch”, once well-known as Atticus, is a good shoot, however, readers can feel his unwillingness to use a gun because he never shows off. As a dad, Atticus educates his children not to point at anybody, which illustrates the constraint of the gun, i.e. the constraint of power. Last but not least, in The Symbolic feature in To Kill a Mockingbird, Yang Xi analyzes the symbolic meaning of different doors in the story—visible and invisible. For example, the visible door symbolizes the isolation between Boo Radley and the outer society, and the powerful invisible door is analyzed with the symbolic meaning of the barrier of races. By looking through these doors, the darkness and sickness of society at that time is revealed incisively.