Morality In To Kill A Mockingbird

Atticus teaching his children about being in one other’s shoes to understand other help his kids view people and their problems with a more mature eye. Atticus tells Jem after the death of Mrs. Dubose, “You know, she was a great lady… She had her own views about things, a lot different from mine… 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… She was the bravest person I ever knew.” (Lee 149). Atticus tells Jem that Mrs. Dubose had her own opinion, and everyone is entitled to their own opinions. He wants Jem to understand that they can’t judge other people until they know how they feel and understand why they are going through or feeling that way. Explaining this to his son helps Jem see why Mrs. Dubose acted that way and see what she has gone through, therefore being nurtured by his father. Atticus with no doubt plays a role as a good father to Jem and Scout. Additionally, Atticus’s protectiveness of his children help Jem and Scout understand that world can be a truly dangerous place. As the children’s curiosity for Boo Radley grows stronger, When Atticus finds out that Scout is going to the Radley’s house again he lectures Scout,“You aren’t starting that again, are you? If you are, I’ll tell you right now: stop it. I’m too old to go chasing you off the Radley property. Besides, it’s dangerous. You might get shot…You were lucky not to be killed.” (Lee 325). Realizing her father was correct on his explanation of why they should stop going to the Radley’s home, she stops going because she’s surprised of her father’s knowledge about that. Her father’s wise knowledge helps her realize that it isn’t safe in every part of the town. Furthermore, the example that Atticus shows his children really brings out the good in them. After Tom Robinson and Atticus lost

What are three qualities every person should have? Empathy, tolerance, and courage. From a young age, Scout and Jem Finch were able to display these qualities better than most adults in their hometown due to their father’s lessons. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee displays the story about an innocent man named Tom Robinson, who was accused of Rape. Atticus Finch takes the case to defend him and goes out of his way to win. During the time of the case, his children Scout and Jem learn a lot of valuable lessons as they grow up. Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus teaches his children to show empathy, tolerance and courage through the example he sets.

Atticus and his children both had to deal with the adversity against them because of the communities differences in opinion. They kept their integrity through it all with Jem and scout having their father’s moral advice and support to help them. Though many succumb to the pressures put on us, there are also many Atticus’s out there that have a moral and ethical conscience backing them up. They become a role model that breeds integrity through their moral practices. “Before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself.  The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.” (Lee, pg.108)

In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus Finch is represented as the stereotypical, all well-knowing fatherly figure to Jem and Scout, and more than oftenly teaches them moral lessons and how to behave as they are transitioning into young adulthood.  Three values that Atticus Finch heavily instills within his children is to live humbly, swear by equality, and have respect for everyone no matter what color your skin is or what you believe in.  These values shape and mold each Jem and Scout into independently minded children who learn wrong from right as the book’s plotline continues.

Lawrence Kohlberg was an American psychologist and educator known for his theory of moral development. He was a professor at Harvard University before he was a developmental psychologist. He later moved into the field of moral education. Jean Piaget (Swiss psychologist), John Dewey (American philosopher), and James Mark Baldwin (American philosopher and psychologist) all influenced Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, though Piaget 's work heavily influenced Kohlberg’s. Kohlberg ran tests to prove his theory.He tested 72 boys from middle and lower class families who were either 10, 13 or 16. Later in his research, he tested both boys and girls from different states and countries other than Chicago. Kohlberg found

    In chapter 31 Scout is realizing that the rumor about Boo and how everybody described him wasn’t as she imagined. The novel states “When they finally saw him, why he hadn’t done any of those things...Atticus he was real nice...His hands were underneath my chin, pulling up the cover, tucking it around me. Most people are Scout, when you finally see them” (Lee 323). In other words people shouldn’t believe what other people say about a person until you have met them.  After Scout put aside those things, she finally saw and got to know him for who he really was, she considered him as a heart kinded man. This is important because  if you do believe what people say you might miss out on the opportunity to make a new friend or role model because you don’t understand that person. In addition,  in chapter 3 Scout’s father is explaining how to along with others better by  considering their point of view.  The text states “First of all,” he said if you learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...until you climb into their skin and walk around in it”(Lee 39). In other words, it isn’t until you truly put yourself in someone else’s position that you will be able to understand what that person has been going though. This illustrates the importance of considering others perspectives and a willingness to be open minded about their

In books, many characters go through moral development. The book To Kill A Mockingbird shows many examples of characters that go through this development and characters that help others develop. While there are many different characters in the book, the focus is on the development of Jem and Scout Finch with the help of Atticus and Calpurnia. The kids are introduced when they are young and over the span of the book, the adults teach and help them, making them have a different understanding of the world only two years later. With the guidance of Atticus and Cal, Jem and Scout go through a big moral change.

Lawrence Kohlberg is known for his theory of moral development developed in 1958. His theory was dependent on the thinking of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and American philosopher John Dewey. It consists of three levels of moral reasoning: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. These levels are based on the degree to which an individual accommodates to the conventional standards of society. Each level aquires two stages that serve as different standards of sophistication in moral reasoning. Overall, Kohlberg affirms that moral development is a process of maturing that emerges from thinking about about moral issues (“Kohlberg’s Moral Development”).

Throughout the page turning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, I have discovered multiple themes and lessons that not only Scout has learned, but many other characters have learned, as well. Over time in the book, Scout’s perspective changes on various people and things, such as Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, her father Atticus, and even the people in Maycomb. After finishing the book, Scout realizes that you should get to know a person, and you “have to walk around in someone else’s skin” sometimes. You shouldn’t judge a person by what others say about that person, but instead get to know a person for yourself. In different parts of the story, Atticus’ words about walking around in other people’s skin are constantly repeated, and Scout refers to them at times in certain chapters. After reading Lee’s novel, one other theme in To Kill a Mockingbird is that you should stick to your morals, despite what others say about a person or thing. Throughout the book, Atticus is the only one who really believes Tom Robinson is innocent. Sticking to Atticus’s morals, he defends Tom Robinson, and does not pay any attention to what the rest of the people in Maycomb do or say. This is a prime example of morality, which is doing what is right despite what others think or say. To conclude, I created a collage to demonstrate these two themes in Harper Lee’s book with various different images.

" To which he replies, " 'don't say [ni--ers] Scout. It isn't polite" (Lee 122). Although Scout realizes that Atticus has indirectly answered her question, she is still undecided as to whether or not she should subscribe to Maycomb's intolerance, since she is still quite impressionable, and contests Atticus's decisions. Furthermore, her impressionability, apart from its derivation from her gender, undoubtedly forces Scout and her generation to become the key towards social change, and right the wrong that injustice imposes upon various individuals. Scout's age and gender encumber her ability to form her own opinions throughout the novel. Yet, Atticus conveys the importance of morality and equality by demonstrating a level of acceptance towards his client and his client's ethnicity. It is not that Scout underestimates her father, but rather, that she is very young, perhaps too young, to understand his motive and the prejudice that is attached to his case. Likewise, the Finch's neighbor, Arthur "Boo" Radley, serves to teach Scout the harm in discrimination during three separate summers. Although Boo is made the subject of games that involve him as a murdering maniac, he becomes, "a compelling enigma […] that also represents Scout's most personal lesson in judging others based [solely] upon surface appearance" (Felty 299). For her entire life, Scout has always

Lastly, Atticus emphasizes how vital inner peace and making the moral decision in a given situation is to maturation. For instance, in a conversation with his children, Atticus comments, “Before I can live with other folks I got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by a majority rule is a man’s conscience.” (Lee 105) By emphasizing the importance of having personal integrity and doing the ethical thing in any circumstance, Atticus provides his children with wisdom that will carry them through life. Therefore, through unremittingly reiterating the importance of moral decisions, proving the need for pacifism and establishing the importance of multiple perspectives, Atticus verifies himself as a major contributor in Jem and Scout’s development into adolescence.

A moral: “To be concerned with the principles of right and wrong behaviour, and the goodness or badness of a character”. Harper Lee’s, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, evidently shows the importance of morals, and how Jem and Scout's development is affected and modified as the plot unfolds. In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”, there are multiple debatable morals induced by Jem and Scout, and both their ways of being. Scout was able to progress throughout the plot, exceeding herself along the way. Jem as well had an increase of growth as the novel developed.

In Harper Lees’s masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird, moral education is a theme that only seems to bloom within the Finch household and is severely lacking in all of Maycomb County. The main character, Scout Finch, is growing in an environment where manners and education matter, this is a quality that can be attributed to the teachings of Atticus Finch and Calpurnia. In a world that is corrupted by prejudice, moral education is form of behavior that stands out, Harper Lee provides examples of this in Calpurnia’s discipline at home, Atticus’s ethical guidance and explanations for the reasoning behind his defense of Tom Robinson, and Scout’s bewilderment at Ms. Gate’s hypocrisy. Moral education is a theme that plays a core role in the development of the title characters as well as the deterioration of the town’s moral standards.

In this book we have a little girl named Scout and her brother named Jem, her mom died and so they're father had to take care of them. He was also a lawyer one of the best he never lost and was a person that was knew around the town, but when a case he takes for a black man named Tom Robinson that was accused of rape and abuse. Atticus won’t let him down he will still try his best. When in court the father of the abused daughter was very rude to Tom Robinson when he saw Atticus trying to help he tried to attack Atticus kids when he was talking to Tom’s family out of the court. When Atticus lost the case every black person in the court stood up to show respect and gave him gifts the next day, but when they find out Tom was shot because he tried

In recent literary history, perhaps the strongest contender for the one character that has had the greatest influence on a generation is Atticus Finch, father of the protagonist in “To Kill A Mockingbird”. Both as a father, and a lawyer, he has served, and still today serves as a pillar of righteousness and morality. The ability for his morality to translate to all people, across ages, races, and cultures, is a feat preformed by Harper Lee in her masterpiece, “To Kill A Mockingbird”. She establishes Atticus Finch as the moral center of the novel by juxtaposing his actions and the relationships with those of the majority of Maycomb. In doing so, she has made him a cultural, and oftentimes personal icon.