Comparison Essay: A Poison Tree Vs To Kill A Mockingbird

Louis Zamperini once said.“All I knew was that hate was so deadly as any poison and did no one any good you had to control and eliminate it, if you could.’’ The novel To Kill a Mockingbird and the poem “A Poison Tree” presents many emotions and layers that progressively unfold throughout the novel and poem and provides the audience a lesson and story on how our emotions might affect in real life scenarios. The poison in William Blake’s poem “A Poison Tree” can be compared to hatred, violence, and trauma within Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird.

Overbuilt emotions can lead to deeper consequences. Emotions such as hatred which takes a toll on our mind and actions. Hatred represents one of the three themes that is represented both the poem and novel as both unfold the emotion hatred. Bob Ewell’s shows a glimpse of his hatred towards Atticus in Chapter 23 “Atticus was leaving the post office when Mr. Ewell approached him, cursed him, spat on him, and threatened to kill him.’’ The poem “A Poison Tree” uses the concept hatred in stanza 10 - 12 “Till it bore an apple bright. And my foe beheld it shine, And knew that it was mine”. Thus it illustrations the foe’s hatred and the enemy’s thirst of knowledge of the hatred. Based on the poem “A Poison Tree” and the novel To Kill a Mockingbird both portray the theme hatred.

Physical force also known as violence which is faced in everyday life. Violence is progressively shown throughout the poem and novel. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird Bob Ewell symbolizes violence as one of the themes. In chapter 29 it states “Don’t like to contradict you, Mr. Finch—wasn’t crazy, mean as hell. Low-down skunk with enough liquor in him to make him brave enough to kill children. He’d never have met you face to face.’’ This illustrates Bob Ewell’s as a person and how he uses alcohol to cope with his emotions which reflected his actions that resulted into violence. “The Poison Tree’’ illustrates violence in stanzas 15-16 “In the morning glad I see My foe outstretched beneath the tree.” This reveals the violent outcome of the foe’s death. Overall both the poem and novel illustrate how they both reflect on the theme violence and how they both compare to one in other.  

Certain events that have great suffering to the body or mind can led to trauma. The emotion trauma indicates the comparison to both the novel and poem and plays a huge impact and unfolds throughout the poem and novel. Trauma shown by Bob Ewell in To Kill a Mockingbird where he represents alcohol as a symbol to manage his emotions and due to the loss of his wife and which he takes it off on his children. According to Chapter 3 it states “It’s against the law, all right,” said my father, “and it’s certainly bad, but when a man spends his relief checks on green whiskey his children have a way of crying from hunger pains.’’ The poem “A Poison Tree’’ includes trauma due to the speakers bottled up hate and trauma which overtime led up to the enemy’s death. In stanza 3-4 it claims “I was angry with my foe : I told it not, my wrath did grow’’. Altogether violence emblematizes the novel and poem and how it varies throughout them both.