The
Ewell family lives in a little cabin behind the town dump. Its roof consists of
tin cans hammered until flat and put one by one, like shingles, on top of the
cabin. Instead of windows, cheesecloth is used in the summertime to keep all of
the pests of the dump out of the “house”. Also, they don’t actually have windows,
“they are merely open spaces in the walls” (170). There are only four puny
rooms throughout the place, so it is not very big. And their “fence” is random
bits of “tree-limbs, broomsticks, and tool shafts held together by barbed wire”
(170). And in the yard is an old, beat-up Ford on blocks in addition to a
dentist’s chair and many other rusty and used items.
What do you believe the flowers symbolize? Could they symbolize Mayella’s hope? Are there any other reasons the geraniums could be in the yard?
I think that the geraniums symbolize the either the solitude of the Ewells, or, and this may be a stretch, but they might also symbolize the six people in Maycomb who are not racist: Atticus, Jem, Scout, Dill, Dolphus Raymond, and Miss Maudie Atkinson. The town is full of racist people, represented by the huge dump that the Ewell's live in, who would rather just kill Tom Robinson than even let him enter a courtroom, but in the midst of all the garbage, there are six beautiful non-racist flowers that will defend the Black community, even when the odds are against them.
ReplyDeleteQuestions: Do you agree? What do you think represents the "odds" against the "flowers?"
I think the "odds" against the flowers is symbolized by the rest of the garden, which is filled with used old things and garbage, but the one corner in which the geraniums are is "fighting back" and trying to keep the one corner for themselves which symbolizes how the non-racist people of maycomb try to fight the racism.
DeleteMayella's geraniums in the chipped enamel jars symbolize her hope for a better future for herself. She lives in complete dump, but yet is able to care and tend to these beautiful flowers. The jars the flowers are in are chipped and uncared for, which is how Mayella feels by being a part of the Ewell family. Despite the ugly jars, Mayella is able to create something beautiful from practically nothing. Harper Lee has the flowers be in the Ewell's uncared for backyard to show that goodness and beauty can be found anywhere, even in the darkest of places.
ReplyDeleteThe flowers could represent Mayela's hope because as the book describes she lives in a very poor and ratty house. The flowers symbolize Mayela because she wants to become something great coming from a poor family. The flowers are something beautiful which come from a dirty, and very poorly taken care of home. Mayela's flowers do very much symbolize her hope for a great future for herself, and maybe even her family.
ReplyDelete