To Kill a Mockingbird Geoshapes

Each character's personality in the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is intricately described, therefore giving the reader an image or idea of the kind of person he or she is. A picture of the character is formed in the mind with maybe rough edges but a soft heart on the inside. A character's personality may be oversimplified by drawing shapes in symbolism, but the shapes may be helpful in perceiving the general extent of the characteristics. With a little help from Lee's descriptions, I have been able to form images in my mind (and draw them on paper) of the personalities of Scout, Jem, Atticus, Dil, Calpurnia, Boo Radley, and Bob Ewell.

Scout's shape has a green half-heart bottom, two green finger-like extensions that reach out from the top, one toward Atticus and the other toward Jem, and another green finger-like extension projecting from the side toward everyone else in Maycomb. The green in each of the finger-like extensions and the half-heart bottom represents her youth and innocence which affect her outlook on life. In the center of the shape, a red core represents the love and passion that fill her heart and is the inspiration for her actions and reasoning. Atticus is connected to Scout by the finger-like extension because Scout looks up to him, trusts him, and learns both moral and academic lessons from his actions and words. When Scout narrates, she says, "As Atticus had once advised me to do, I tried to climb into Jem's skin and walk around in it: if I had gone alone to the Radley Place at two in the morning, my funeral would have been held the next afternoon. So I left Jem alone and tried not to bother him"(57). This shows her respect toward Atticus and demonstrates her real trust in his advice. The other finger-like extension reaching from the top, toward Jem, shows their connection and her natural admiration, love, respect, and trust in her older sibling. "Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained- if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time" (13). This shows her innocence, but also her trust in Jem. Anything Jem would tell Scout, she would believe and trust that he would never lie to her. She always looked up to Jem, and, although she sometimes wouldn't like his attitude toward her, she would always love and respect him. The finger-like extension projecting from the side toward everyone else in Maycomb represents the innocent observing the symptoms of maturity and politics, as well as the morality and principals of those who differentiate from Atticus, such as Aunt Alexandra and Ms. Gates. "Somewhere, I had received the impression that Fine Folks were people who did the best they could with the sense they had, but Aunt Alexandra was of the opinion, obliquely expressed, that the longer a family had been squatting on one patch of land the finer it was" (130). When Scout says this and tries to understand Aunt Alexandra's opinion, it, again, shows the respect Atticus has planted in her. The respect that manipulates her outlook on everyone and life gives her the want to understand others and their opinion before deciding that whatever she was raised to believe is always right. Scout looks upon the Maycomb citizens with respect, wonder, and openness for understanding the ways of the town that contrast to the ways of Atticus. The smooth half-heart bottom shows that she has a soft heart and wants to understand people and their sometimes contradicting ways. The size of Scout's shape is rather large because her place in the novel, as narrator, is important because she tells the story and the reader sees everything from her point of view. Her shape is placed in the middle of the bottom because we see everything in Maycomb through her eyes.

Jem's shape has a blue, round top in which the blue represents his security and loyalty, and the round top represents his soft heart and acceptance. Jem demonstrates the way he freely accepts those different from himself and those with lower reputations: "'Come on home to dinner with us, Walter,' he (Jem) said. 'We'd be glad to have you'"(23). He also demonstrates his security by keeping Scout from continually rubbing Walter's nose in the dirt and beating him up. Jem shows loyalty to Atticus when he and Scout are walking past Mrs. Dubose and says "'Don't pay any attention to her, just hold your head high and be a gentleman'" (101). Atticus had told Jem to be a gentleman, so, out of his loyalty, he not only is a gentleman himself, but also advises Scout to do the same. The bottom half of Jem's shape is red with wavy edges. The red in this part of the shape, like Scout's, represents his love and passion which molds and guides each step he takes in his journey to maturity. The wavy edges represent the way he tries not to let the nasty remarks and doings of the town get to him. Instead, he tries to let everything just roll off of him, which is also demonstrated when he and Scout pass Mrs. Dubose. Jem's shape is placed next to Atticus, Scout, and Dill because he looks up to Atticus and follows his example before anyone else's, is Scout's security and sibling and grows up playing and adventuring with her, and meets Dill and becomes his only male-friend in the town and is his source of information about Maycomb. The size of his shape is smaller in comparison to Scout's and Atticus's shapes, but larger than the other shapes because both his maturity and effect on Scout are detailed thoroughly in the novel and his insight allows the reader a better understanding of the themes expressed.

Atticus's shape is mostly gray, with four long finger-like extensions. The extensions represent his effect on everyone in town. Everything he does and believes has an effect on someone. The gray represents his maturity and reliability. Both qualities are shown during the time before and after the trial when he ignores the name calling he receives and does not react when Bob Ewell spits on him and threatens to kill him, and, despite everything that is going on with the trial, is still a reliable father for Jem and Scout. The red circle in the center of the gray, also displayed in Jem's and Scout's shapes, represents the love and passion that drives Atticus to take Tom Robinson's case. The pink at the bottom of the shape represents his wisdom and courage. Atticus says "'I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.