Examples Of Integrity In To Kill A Mockingbird

As the story begins and we start to analyze the characters, Scout comes off as an being unable to grasp the realities of life due to her childlike innocence. We see this through her thoughts and actions. Walter Cunningham has a misfit with Scout in the beginning of the novel that can be an example of both her innocence and intolerance. It starts when Scout's teacher, Miss Caroline, tells Walter to take her money for lunch and suggests paying her back later. Walter refuses and Miss Caroline gets irritated. In attempt to explain why Walter doesn't take the money, Scout tells Miss Caroline the stigma of the Cunninghams. Scout says that Walter can't pay her back because he doesn't have the money; No Cunningham would ever take anything they couldn't pay back. When Scout gets in trouble for talking back, she blames it on Walter and reacted as follows, "Catching Walter Cunningham in the schoolyard gave me some pleasure, but when I was rubbing his nose in the dirt..." (Lee 30). This quote

The first example of a character displaying the qualities of courage is Atticus Finch. Atticus displays the qualities of courage in all facets of the novel but the first instance was when he accepted the case to defend Tom Robinson. After Scout had heard about her father defending a colored man, she wanted to know why he had taken the case. While talking to Atticus, Scout was intrigued as to why he accepted this case within the circumstances that he was defending a black man against a white woman. Atticus claimed, “Simply

The Cunningham family was very poor. They did not take anything from anyone that they could not pay back, therefore Walter did not take the quarter. Scout was then punished with slaps on the knuckles and she was put in the corner. Scout was angry at Miss Caroline until Scout talked to Atticus. He believed that Scout and Walter should have put themselves in Miss Caroline 's shoes. " Miss Caroline had learned several things herself. She had learned not to hand something to a Cunningham, for one thing, but if Walter and I had put ourselves in her shoes we’d have seen it was an honest mistake on her part. We could not expect her to learn all Maycomb’s ways in one day, and we could not hold her responsible when she knew no better." (Lee page 30). Walking in Someone Else 's shoes is important to the story because it helps the characters understand the other characters situations.

5. Walter Cunningham and Burris Ewell both come from poor American, white families. Within the community, people don’t regard them with high respect within the community. However, Walter Cunningham is respectful to those around him and Burris Ewell is disrespectful to those around him. One example that shows how Burris Ewell is disrespectful is when he responds in a rude way to Ms. Caroline when told to wash his hair, come to school, bathed the next day. Moreover, when Ms. Caroline tells him to sit in his seat he snorts and taunts her. She consequently cries and threatens to report his behavior to the principal since he seems problematic. An example showing that Walter Cunningham is respectful is when Walter Cunningham and Atticus “talked together like two men” when they talked about farming and how he could pass first grade since he must help his father who is a poor farmer.

Integrity isn’t a black and white definition, one may think they are doing what is right based off of their own conscience. Different values allow people to have different interpretations of integrity, so multiple “integrities” must exist. One can have passionate feelings about a situation that is viewed as unethical while someone, else can have strong integrity for a case that is seen as moral. However, there are certain qualities that show the strength of the integrity no matter the situation. These qualities are present in the main character’s actions in To Kill a Mockingbird, a historical fiction by Harper Lee. In this book, the Finches, especially Atticus, are faced with the racist society of Maycomb, Alabama because of their opposing moral values. Similarly, in the Power of One, another historical fiction by Bryce Courtenay, PK also goes against a racist society. Everyone around him is taught to dislike the African Americans, however, since he was once in their position when he was younger, experiencing racism, he felt equality between everyone. He built a school against the views of everyone else and didn’t care if he got in trouble for it. Both of their sacrifices are in pursuit of justice and equality and they both disregard the consequences that accompany their actions. Through these books and the character’s actions, an interpretation of integrity can be devised. Integrity is defined as persistently following one’s high ethical and moral standards, regardless of the racist society's pressures and the repercussions one’s opposition leads to.

In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus makes a very powerful speech to the jury. The reason for this is because he uses powerful examples of the 3 main ways how to convince someone something. Those 3 ways are ethos, pathos, and logos. Atticus makes a great pathos statement when he says, “In the name of God, do your duty.” This is such a good quote because the south in the time people were very religious.

How could have the conflict between Scout and Miss Caroline been avoided? “Walter’s one of the Cunninghams, Miss Caroline.” This is what Scout said to her teacher after Miss Caroline offered the money and Walter refuses. She says this because everyone in the town know that the Cunninghams are very poor and can't pay anything back with real money. In the beginning of the story with Mr. Cunningham paying Scout’s dad with hickory nuts and not real money. The beginning of the story it is Scout’s first day of school. Her day was going great but then a new teacher: Miss Caroline, came into class to teach. It was lunch and she told everyone to bring out their lunches and show her what they have. Everyone had lunch except a kid named Walter Cunningham.

“What is Moral Courage? It is the ability to distinguish right from wrong and having so distinguished it, be prepared to say so, irrespective of the views held by your superiors or subordinates and of consequences to yourself.” This is a quote by Sam Manekshaw, the first Indian Army officer to be promoted to the rank of field marshal, and it perfectly sums up what moral courage is. Moral Courage is to know when something isn’t right, and say something about it whether or not your peers approve. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, there was a black man named Tom Robinson who was accused of raping a woman named Mayella and was found guilty even though the evidence says otherwise. Also during 1931, a trial that prosecuted 9 boys for raping two women was an extremely prejustice case. In both cases, the innocent were found guilty and wrongs were not righted due to the civil injustices at that time, and moral courage was not shown in either of these cases except for the few to speak out.

Dignity is “the state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary. To some, this definition might imply that one has to be worthy to be respected, that one has to earn it. But others will argue that every human being on earth is imbued with at birth a certain amount of dignity, and because of this all humans must be judged before anything else as a human being with worth. HISTORICALLY, humans have TENDED to be judged by external characteristics--race, gender, skin color. Which begs the question, what does one have to do to lose their dignity? In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, the concept of human dignity is explored in the context of an overtly racist, sexist society, showing that dignity,

Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee demonstrates morality. To have morality is to know one’s beliefs are, and can express those beliefs through their actions regardless how a society around them reacts to those actions. In Maycomb County, everyone is discriminatory of race and unaccepting of change. In the 1930’s, if you believed in equality between blacks and whites, you were frowned upon. For example, wherever the Finch family went, the residents of Maycomb County would display bigoted rhetoric towards them and threaten their safety simply for defending Tom robinson in court. Nevertheless, Atticus never feared their actions or threats because he knew what he and his family knew what the were doing was the right thing. Atticus

Harper Lee does an exceptional job of making morality and ethics as one of the over arching themes of story, by creating examples such as quotes from the characters, or even examples that are not stated in the text. To Kill a Mockingbird requires the readers to think about the theme, and how they would

Aristotle once said, “We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence but we rather have those because we have acted rightly.” The meaning behind Aristotle’s quote is that being ethical is important because it is what a person does, that defines a person. Morality and ethics play a huge role in life, especially doing what is right over what will be accepted, and is shown throughout To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Lee uses the novel’s moral compass, Atticus Finch, and his foil, the hypocritical Maycomb townspeople, to show the moral obligations society has to do what is right rather than what is accepted.

In To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus shows integrity by consistently defending the principles of equality and fairness that he believes in, despite the many reasons that suggest he should act differently. He demonstrates this commitment to upholding these beliefs when he

Harper Lee writes, in a realistic fiction novel based on the story of a young girl during World War II, To Kill a Mockingbird, of a father maintaining his integrity. This character develops and greatly influences those around him to question the way the society is being run. A similar character is seen in The Power of One, directed by Avildsen, with a young boy who grows up with integrity and changes the way people see discrimination and racism. Both these stories demonstrate that acting with integrity is maintaining one’s beliefs in order to reintroduce ideas to society.

Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. Atticus meets this criteria. He never catches the Maycomb “disease,” which is actually racism. The racism in Maycomb is like a plague that spreads throughout the whole town. Atticus, however is immune because he always holds his head high and tries to do the right thing, even when that requires him to make sacrifices. The whole town is revolted when they discover Atticus is defending Tom Robinson,