What does Atticuss Watch Symbolize in To Kill a Mocking Bird?
The watch does not work; time has literally stopped, and it is no accident that Jem, certainly aware that he is changing, wants to wear the non-working watch instead of his own. Without being conscious of time, Jem can trick himself into believing that time is not passing. Nobody wants to grow up, and trying to ignore time is a way of prolonging the present. And then there is the knife with its violent associations. It is important that the knife is attached to the watch. If we think of the broken watch as a symbol for childhood innocence, then, following this symbol, the knife becomes a grim foreshadowing of what is to come. For many people, childhood ends and innocence is shattered by a traumatic event or image, as it will at the end of the book for Jem and Scout.
