Analysis of The Connection of The Tell-tale Heart, The Scarlet Ibis, and to Kill a Mockingbird

The Tell-Tale Heart, and Scarlet Ibis, both relate to To Kill A Mockingbird in many fascinating and hidden ways. To Kill a Mockingbird is about racism and inequality that is shown through many hidden symbols. Harper Lee was an American Novelist born April 1926 in and she died February 2016 both in Monroeville Alabama. The Scarlet Ibis is about how pride can be bad, and how you should be grateful for what you have. James Hurst was an author born on January 1st in North Carolina and he died October 24th, 2013, also in North Carolina. The Tell-Tale Heart is about how your worst enemy is yourself. Edgar Allen Poe had a bad life. He was born on January 19th, 1809 and he died October 7th in 1849 both in Maryland. In American literature, many authors turn things that were once beautiful into what is now broken.

To Kill A Mockingbird and Tell-Tale Heart relate to one another in multiple ways. One way they relate is how both Doodle and Scout cry out to their brother in crisis. Doodle is a six-year-old crippled boy with a big imagination. Scout is a six-year-old girl with a big imagination, surrounded by racism. When they are both being left and are close to death, they cry out to their brother. Scout cries out for help from her brother Jem when they are being attacked by the towns drunk, Mr. Ewell. “Jem, Jem, help me, Jem!” Doodle cries out for his older brother not to leave him during the big storm when he dies. 'Brother, Brother, don't leave me! Don't leave me!'(Hurst) This ties into the theme of what was once beautiful is now broken throughout the example of brotherhood. Brotherhood normally means you would turn to your brother when in need, but now brotherhood is seen as broken because of the betrayal and their lack to help. Another way that To Kill a Mockingbird and Scarlet Ibis relate is seen in the way family and society views Doodle and Boo Radley. Doodle’s family sees no use in him. They keep him in his room until he turns three years old until they finally take him into his own living room. “(it was his third winter), and we brought him out of the front bedroom…” (Hurst). Doodle’s family had so little faith in him that they even made a casket for him before he was born. For Arthur (Boo) Radley, society sees him as a monster. People have never seen him yet they make up rumors about how he looks, what he does, and how he treats people. Some people even go as far as saying he peers at people through their windows in the middle of the night watching them sleep. “People said he went out at night when the moon was down and peeped in windows” (Lee 5). This shows how things that were once beautiful are now broken through the example of how your family and community are supposed to make you feel welcome, but instead, they show judgment. Families are supposed to always have your back and make you feel accepted but in Scarlet Ibis, the family bond is broken after they see no use in Doodle and they keep him away for three years. They even think about killing him. While To Kill a Mockingbird relates to Scarlet Ibis in many ways, it also relates to the Tell-Tale Heart.

To Kill A Mockingbird and Tell-Tale Heart relate to one another in various unknown and unexpected ways, like clouded vision. In both To Kill a Mockingbird and Tell-Tale Heart, clouded vision is presented through Bob Ewell and the narrator. In Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator has a mental illness that makes little things seem big to him. Things that would not normally bother people can push him to go insane, even enough to kill a person. “The disease had sharpened my senses --not destroyed --not dulled them” (Poe). In To Kill a Mockingbird, Bob Ewell shows clouded vision because he is an alcoholic, and because of this, he makes poor decisions. He falsely accuses Tom Robinson of rape and even attempts to murder him. He has many kids but doesn’t take care of them, he beats and sexually harasses his oldest daughter, Mayella. “...but when a man spends his relief checks on green whiskey his children have a way of crying from hunger pains.” (Lee 16) This ties into the theme because it shows how beauty was once in trust and friendship, yet now, trust is broken. Atticus trusted that Bob was over the trial because he won, but he wasn’t, therefore, he lost Atticus’s trust. The old man trusted that the narrator was his friend but he was not. We used to be able to trust almost everybody we met, now we can trust little to nobody because of all the lies in American literature and in human nature.

Another way that To Kill a Mockingbird and Tell-Tale heart relate is shown through characters who murder. Both the narrator and Bob Ewell are murderers. The narrator in Tell-Tale Heart is insane and he plans to kill his friend, an old man with a lazy eye. His lazy eye drives the narrator so crazy that for a span of seven days, he watches the old man; plotting how he will kill him. On the eighth day, the narrator slowly sneaks into the old man’s room. He pounces on the old man, pulls the mattress over him, and then suffocates the man to death. “In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him”(Poe). In To Kill a Mockingbird, Bob Ewell is a murder. He attempts to kill Jem and Scout, but he fails and instead gets Tom Robinson shot and killed. Bob falsely accuses Tom Robinson of rape and Tom ends up getting sentenced as guilty although he is innocent. After Tom is dead, Bob wants revenge on anybody involved in the case, therefore he targets Atticus kids, Jem and Scout. During the night in the dark, Bob pounces on the kids and attempts to kill them with a kitchen knife when he trips and stabs himself. “He slowly squeezed the breath out of me” (Lee 139). This ties into my theme because of how friendship was once beautiful, and it is broken from betrayal and murder. One last way these two stories are comparable is how both murders take place in the dark so the murder’s identity would be secretive. When Jem and Scout were walking home, they didn’t have a flashlight because Jem wasn’t aware of how dark it would be. “Didn’t know it was this dark. Didn’t look like it’d be this dark earlier in the evening” (Lee 135). When the narrator is sneaking into the old man’s room, it is pitch black and he can’t see anything. So he has to open the lantern just a little so that he can see. “I resolved to open a little --a very, very little crevice in the lantern.” (Poe) Although To Kill a Mockingbird relates to both Tell-Tale Heart and Scarlet Ibis, Scarlet Ibis and Tell-Tale heart also relate to each other.

Tell-Tale Heart and Scarlet Ibis relate by the use of birds; the Scarlet Ibis and the vulture. When doodle finds the big red bird outside, they discover that it is a scarlet ibis. 'It's a scarlet ibis...' (Hurst). In The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator describes the old man’s eye as if it was the eye of the vulture. Throughout the story, he refers to the man’s lazy eye as if it were a vulture’s eye. “...fell full upon the vulture eye.” (Poe) This ties into the theme because birds used to be viewed as beautiful, now they are seen as death, because of how the authors used the birds to symbolize the characters who died. The last way these two are related is by the death of innocent people. Doodle dies during the storm and the old man is brutally killed. Both Doodle and the man were innocent and their lives were taken because of the ignorance of others. In the Tell-Tale Heart, The old man is killed yet he had done nothing to harm the narrator, he gets killed simply because the narrator dislikes his eye. “The old man was dead.” (Poe) In The Scarlet Ibis, Doodle dies because his brother leaves him behind not sheltering him from the cold, the rain, or the tree that killed him. “I screamed above the pounding storm and threw my body to the earth above his” (Hurst). To Kill a Mockingbird, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Scarlet Ibis all relate to each other in many ways. Many authors turn what was once beautiful into what is now broken in American literature. These stories all relate in three main ways including; murder, death, and birds, the characters throughout these stories also relate in many ways. Some ways include; clouded vision, friendship, and birds. Sometimes the most beautiful things are the most fragile.

Works Cited

1. Lee, Harper. “To Kill A Mockingbird.” To Kill a Mockingbird Pdf, www.kkoworld.com/kitablar/harper_li_masqarachini_oldurmek-eng.pdf.
2. Hurst, James. “Scarlet Ibis.” Scarlet Ibis Pdf, jjett.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/97072218/The_Scarlet_Ibis.pdf.
3. Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” The Tell-Tale Heart Pdf, americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/the_tell-tale_heart_0.pdf.