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Philosophical Ideas In To Kill A Mockingbird

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To Kill A Mockingbird philosophical ideas

“To Kill A Mockingbird” (1960), by Harper Lee, emphasizes and displays many different philosophical ideas. These ideas are about innocence, segregation, knowledge, and reality. Ideas include the right for all races to be treated as equals, and not be judged or segregated by the color of their skin. “To Kill A Mockingbird” especially emphasizes that children, as they grow into their teen and pre-teen years, start to realize their environment and observe the way people act. This is the idea of reality. Children will start having sophisticated and intelligent ideas whether adults like it or not but the children will fight even if parents don’t think they have a mind of their own. Children start disobeying and showing signs of rebellion.The environment we live in influences the way we think, it takes away our innocence because of bad things that happen, and give us a base to form our ideas on. Two siblings; Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, and Jeremy Atticus “Jem” Finch. Their Father, a southern lawyer defending a black-American man accused of rape and beating a white woman. Jem and scout are 10 and 6 at the beginning of the book. But end up being 13 and 9 by the end, Jem being the oldest. Jem and scout, along with many other characters in the book, like Tom Robinson, Atticus Finch, and Charles Baker “Dill” Harris all have a message linked to them in the book.

The main message is that the situations around jem, scout, dill, and even tom Robinson destroy their innocence. The environment and drama that takes place make them see the world as it is. “Atticus said to Jem one day, “I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a Mockingbird.”(90). I believe that the mockingbird in the quote symbolizes innocence. Jem is confused on why killing a mockingbird is a sin and Atticus tells him that the mockingbird is pure. Just like the minds of the children. The environment around them kills the purity and innocence of the children and it relates to the mockingbird being dead.

The narrator of “To Kill A Mockingbird” is Scout Finch and as we read the book, we can see

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