What if everything you lived for and loved all burned to the ground? How would you react and what would you do? In chapter eight of To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Miss Maudie, who is a family friend of the Finches, was found staring at her charred azaleas the same morning her house and garden burned down. In this passage, Lee uses the literary elements of conflict, tone, and foreshadowing to develop the theme that you have to keep your head up and continue looking ahead even during the hard times. Miss Maudie really loved her azaleas and took great care of them. The conflict with the fire shows how unexpected things can happen, but it is up to the person as to what they will do next. “At the front door, we saw fire spewing from Miss …show more content…
Miss Maudie is setting an example for the children and modeling a way they the children can try to deal with the hard times they will have to go through during the time where Atticus is dealing with the Tom Robinson case. “Miss Maudie said, ‘Thank you sir, but you’ve got a job of your own over there.’ She pointed to our yard” (98). Miss Maudie didn’t exactly say what she was pointing at when she pointed at their yard. The children automatically jump to the conclusion that it was about their snowman that had melted during the fire. Instead, she is actually indicating that they will be in problem in their lives and is foreshadowing the Tom Robinson case in which they will need each other the most for emotional support. “Miss Maudie stared down at me, her lips moving silently. Suddenly she put her hands to her head and whooped. When we left her, she was still chuckling” (98). This also pushed forward the idea of foreshadowing because it a bit odd that Miss Maudie would try and say something but no actually say it then laugh. She was going to tell them something but didn’t. She knows something they don’t, and that something is about the town, Tom Robinson case, and racial inequality. She knows that the case will be hard on the children because they will see how the outcome of the case is unfair. Jem and Scout will have to see the overall effect of the case to stay positive about it. The case is the thing that will be hard on the children and they will need to keep their heads up to overcome the hard