Just thought I'd throw this out there to the world. I read below about the religios symbolism in Dr. Seuss, so here is some in To Kill a Mocking Bird.
Okay so I'll start with christianity.The Radley's house is the garden of eden, Scout is Eve and Jem is Adam. Nathan Radley(or the father Radley before him) is God. Atticus says for the kids to respect him, and do like him(Mr. Radley) all things like that. Therefore Atticus is some religious figure, a prophet or priest or monk or whatever. That also makes Boo(or Arthur but Boo is funner to say ) Jesus. It sounds like an extreme stretch at first but the more you think about it it seems more obvious and more clear.
Dill is a harder character to figure out. But it seems that he is some sort of saint. He supports the idea of Boo being a monster and in the symbolism he supports the teachings of Jesus. He could also be the snake convincing the apple eating, the sin, but I'll get to that.
The sin is the going to the Radley place, when Jem(Adam) goes on the porch(eating of the apple) Nathan Radley(God) tries to shoot him(gets angry.) It's quite simple actually and makes sense. Although I don't think it was done on purpose. Oh and, haha, there was twine in the tree and the snake was twined around the tree haha it's a joke! Get it?
Okay moving right along to Egyptian mythology. for this metaphor kind of thing the Radley house is the underworld. And Boo Radley is Osiris. It will make sense when I explain it so keep reading.
Nathan Radley is Set. First he just tries to get rid of him(Osiris) in the trunk but when Isis(The three kids, Scout, Jem, and Dill) he takes more desperate measures and chops Osiris up. Keeping Osiris permenatly in the underworld, permenatly in the house. The chopping up of Osiris is, in the book, the things the children that the kids find in the tree. Those items are the pieces of Osiris and the kids Isis gathering them. The kids gather his pieces and begin to put him back together. To bring himout of the under world.
Comments?