Morals and values often control one’s choices, and sometimes these decisions affect someone’s entire life. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a prime example of the importance of morals. During the 1930s in the southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, a non-racist, white lawyer, Atticus Finch, passes on his beliefs to his children, and they use his teachings to overcome challenges in their life. Atticus’s children’s, Jem and Scout, first encounter with an obstacle is when Atticus is tasked with defending an African American in court against a racist man named Bob Ewell that falsely accuses him of raping his daughter. As a result, members of their community, specifically an elderly woman named Mrs. Dubose, become angry at Atticus, and Bob Ewell even tries to murder Atticus’s children. Fortunately, Boo Radley, the town’s social outcast, jumps to the children’s rescue and kills Bob Ewell. Eventually, Scout was able to learn from her tragic experiences with the help of Atticus’s teachings. Using life lessons, Atticus aims to inculcate morals and principles throughout Scout and Jem’s lives.
Atticus persistently implants the concept to Jem and Scout that it is cruel to harm an innocent being. When Atticus apprises Scout that she should not shoot at mockingbirds during a hunting lesson, Scout refers to a friendly adult for interpretation and learns, “Mockingbirds don 't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy [...] That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (Lee 119). Through
On July 11, 1960 Harper Lee published her first novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. To date over 40 million copies of this chart topper have been sold to the public. The story is told from a child’s point of view and how she survives the challenges of racism and growing up. To Kill a Mockingbird also illustrates that challenging the opinions of others can aid in one’s moral improvement; Jem Finch experiences the most developmental progress through expanding his moral ideas and beliefs. Coming from a strong moral figure like Atticus, Jem is expected to become a respectable young adult.
The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee follows the childhood of Scout Finch. Scout grew up living in Maycomb, Alabama along with her brother Jem and her father Atticus. In the midst of her childhood Atticus was called upon to represent Tom Robinson, a black man living in Maycomb who was accused of raping a girl named Mayella Ewell. During this time Scout and her family had many hardships due to the towns criticism while doing the right thing and helping an innocent man. In the novel, Harper Lees’ use of tone helped to develop the central idea, which is the importance of having a moral compass.
Through the years, the children have gone on many adventures, but their biggest continues to be the night Scout at last, meets Boo. After Arthur rescues the children from the town drunk (, the antagonist,?) Scout sees Boo for the kind, human person he is. “Atticus was right one time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them, just standing on the Radley’s porch was enough” (Lee 374). Scout realizes how wrong they actually are about Boo.
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird shows how Jem, Scout and Boo overcome their loss of innocence and overcome the struggles that Maycomb county and its people throw at them. While Jem, Scout, are just rudimentary kids they face some real world problems and they witness some of the harsh ways people did things but witnessing those things and hearing all the judgemental people is also a detriment to their innocence.
Remember that special bird that always seems to be belting its cheerful tunes? Has anyone ever told you to appreciate the bird’s special knack for singing? Or rather, to do no harm to the frail animal since, after all, “It's a sin to kill a mockingbird” (Lee, pg.119). Harper Lee took this aphorism and turned it on its head: she gave this phrase a new meaning by creating the critically acclaimed novel, To Kill A Mockingbird starring the brother sister duo, Scout and Jem, both of whom constantly finding themselves in the most unlikely but simultaneously relatable predicaments. The audience follows the pair through their highs and lows in a key coming of age story.
Landon Bennett Mrs. Alfaro English 3 May 22, 2023 To Kill a Mockingbird In Harper Lee's timeless novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the character of Atticus Finch serves as a moral compass and a pillar of righteousness. Through his actions, words, and unwavering principles, Atticus demonstrates the qualities of a compassionate and just individual, whose beliefs are deeply rooted in fairness, equality, and respect for all individuals. Atticus's commitment to justice and equality is evident throughout the novel. He consistently upholds the belief that every person deserves to be treated fairly and without prejudice. Atticus imparts this wisdom to his children, Scout and Jem, when he tells them, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb into his skin and walk around in it”.
According to Atticus, it is considered a sin to harm a mockingbird because “mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us.” By drawing a parallel between mockingbirds and vulnerable members of society, Atticus teaches his children the importance of embracing kindness and refraining from causing harm to those who pose no threat. Towards the conclusion of the novel, Scout demonstrates her understanding of the mockingbird metaphor when she reflects on the necessity of keeping Boo Radley's actions secret by comparing exposing Boo's deeds to “shooting a mockingbird”, thereby highlighting her ability to apply the metaphor to individuals in her own life. Scout's observation serves as evidence of her personal growth throughout the narrative, as she embraces the principles of empathy and ethical behaviour that Atticus
To Kill a Mockingbird focuses on multiple significant ideas to highlight the main ideas of the novel. One of great magnitude is explained in chapter three of the novel when author Harper Lee simplifies the importance of being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes to view each different perspective. “First of all,” he said, “if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folk. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.” Be understanding, realize that honest mistakes happen as in the excerpt with Scout and Walter.
To Kill A Mockingbird Literary Analysis Throughout To Kill A MockingBird, by Harper Lee there are many acts of courage. This is shown in Atticus Finch, Jem Finch, and Boo Radley. Atticus shows the most courage in the book but all three of these characters show true courage in some way, shape, or form. Boo Radley showed a lot of courage, but he was not in the storyline as much as Atticus. Throughout To Kill A Mockingbird, courage is defined as standing up for people and doing what’s right.
“Courage doesn 't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying ‘I’ll try again tomorrow’” - Mary Anne Radmacher. Through this quote one can see the advantages of real courage. One can really understand the true meaning of courage by reading the books To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. The book by Harper Lee is written by a 9 year old’s perspective named Scout.
In the passage Jem and Scout walk home during the dark hours,giving Bob Ewell an opportunity to stage an attack. As Bob Ewell attacks them Boo Radley rushes in to rescue Jem and Scout. After this Scout now understands what Atticus meant it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. The killing of a mockingbird is much like killing the innocent. It is beyond a crime and worse than the most heinous atrocities.
As the book goes on and the characters change, ethical dilemmas about fear, and racism are seen. Additionally, what the book has to say about moral values and how things are done is mentioned in this essay. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee depicts the crude reality of Ethical Dilemmas in Maycomb, Alabama during the 1950s. One of the first Ethical Dilemmas presented in the book is what are the morals of the people in Maycomb. It is clear that Maycomb has differences in how people act, but that is different on what their moral values are.
In society, there are very few people who have the unwavering dedication to stand up for what they believe. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, a black man was convicted and accused of a crime he didn 't commit, raping a white women, which is not in anyway tolerable in society. In Harper Lee 's To Kill A Mockingbird, the author used point of view and symbolism to acknowledge how the the several social divisions which make up much of the adult world are shown to be both irrational and extremely destructive. To begin with, the short story To Kill A Mockingbird, used point of view to show how the many social divisions in the world are irrational and destructive. Scout; a first grade student at the time, was telling the story from her point of view and what had occurred from her childhood perspective.
Essay 1 Date Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird “To kill a Mockingbird” is a novel in which Harper Lee, the author, presents forth various themes among them the unheard theme of social molarity. Harper dramatically uses a distinctive language through Scout, who is the narrator of the story to bring out the difficulties faced by children living in the southern Alabama town of Maycomb. Harper has dramatically displayed use of bildungsroman throughout the story; this helped to give the story a unique touch of a child’s view to bring out a different type of humor and wit. It has also used to develop and thrive the theme of morality in the society.
Dillon Lindstrom Mrs. Engelstad English 11, Hour 7 22/03/16 Critical Analysis “If you can learn a simple trick, you 'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." [30] . The character, Atticus has a hand in three buckets throughout the story.