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To Kill A Mockingbird Self Determination Analysis

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The main idea Harper Lee (author of To Kill A Mockingbird) developes in the book regards the conflict between self determination and societal expectations. The genre of a social drama really brings out the problems that many people faced during the 1930’s and because of this the book illustrates a different type of environment and really brings the reader back to that time and age. In focusing on the specific conflict of self determination we see how and what it takes for people to overcome society's expectations during this time.

The entirety of Life, people are having to make choices, but the most important choice shows who you really are, a follower or a leader.In order to stay true to oneself there's one thing called Willpower that comes …show more content…

When you are taught to love and accept everyone and everything, that is all you can do. If things like these are taught in your life then you will teach others about those same things, your teachings become your morales and with your morales comes the power to make the right decisions.In the book Atticus shows us how he wants his kids to grow up, he shows this in how he raises Jem and Scout and how in every mistake they make he corrects them with what's right, however what's right to him is wrong to everyone else. This makes it clear how he was taught and how those teachings became his morals to live by. A great example of Atticus doing this is when Jem makes an accusation about someone without knowing where they are coming from, he then replies “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.” . This one specific quote shows the reader how Atticus passes down what he has learned. When someone is taught to do something a certain way they only know how to do it that way, they only know how to teach it that way and because of that people are able to overcome societal expectations.

Ones Self Determination is only able to surpass Society’s expectations in some cases. When people use willpower, what they believe in and what they have been taught the situation becomes a whole lot easier. Harper Lee shows this during the course of the book and with that shows us how people can be strong enough to beat what others expectations are. All in all To Kill A Mockingbird shows us how we can use our own mental and physical strengths to overcome how others expect us to

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