The Importance Of Morality In Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird

Children are born into the world with no set guidelines or morals until they can get a basic understanding of the world around them. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch, is a man with incredible amounts of honor and morality. His two kids see a lot of the cruelty that exists in life throughout the book, from a racist trial to a truly bitter person. Atticus tries to instill many morals into his children throughout the story so that they will lead their lives fittingly in the future with a great understanding of the world.
Atticus has his children read to a bitter old lady named Mrs. Dubose. His reasoning being that “‘I wanted you to see something about her—I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand’” (Lee 149). With Atticus teaching his children about Mrs. Dubose, he hopes it can help them understand that other people go through incredibly tough times in their lives and that they should understand how they should treat and feel about them. Despite the fact that the children were first given this task as punishment for scolding her, Atticus still would “‘[..] have made you go read

He scolds them for the game and teaches them that “‘You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view’” (Lee 39). He teaches them not to poke fun at other people’s livelihoods without understanding anything about it, until you “‘[...] climb into his skin and walk around in it.’” (Lee 39). Atticus wants his children to understand the daily life of someone before they go around making their own assumptions and poking fun at it. Atticus teaches his children about how important it is to treat others with respect when you do not know anything about what they are like, and that you should learn about someone from their perspective before judging