Theme Of Ethics In To Kill A Mockingbird

In Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, a young white woman from Maycomb, Alabama, named Mayella Ewell is charging Tom Robinson a black man of rape. Mayella Ewell is not powerful in the sense that she is classified within class, race, and gender.

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)

If you were a parent would you want the best for your kids? Would you want to teach them to search out for the true meaning of dignity and respect? This was the goal of one father, Atticus Finch. Being a nearly fifty-year-old man with extremely young children he wanted to share his wisdom and firsthand experiences with his children to shape them into a respectable young man and woman. Throughout his life, Atticus is taught many experiences himself about not judging someone, and to stand up for the helpless and defenseless. Some important morals that he carried through to teach his children in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird is to never judge someone by their social class or race, and to fight for the justice of all the people of Maycomb.

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

Scout is one of many characters in the historical fiction book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee that develop as the story progresses. She grows throughout the novel by becoming more aware of her surroundings as the story progresses and reveals more to the reader. Also, Scout over the course of the book starts to realize what kind of man Boo Radley actually is and begins to trust him more towards the end of the book. She even walks with him and talks to him as if he were a friend of her, which he could very well be at the end of the book. Finally, Scouts morals develop by in the beginning of the book having started at level one of Kohlberg's moral development chart, but towards the end of the book reaching level two.

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”).

G.K Chesterton quotes, “I say that a man must be certain of his morality for a simple reason that he has to suffer for it.” Harper Lee’s novel To Kill Mockingbird tells the story of a character who makes moral and ethical decisions while facing many problems. Atticus Finch is a man of unshakable morals. This is demonstrated through him teaching his children morals and him fighting for what is right.

Black and white, right and wrong; do decisions that simple and clear even exist? Does a decision ever mean gaining everything without giving anything up? Many characters in To Kill A Mockingbird are forced to make difficult, heart wrenching decisions that have no clear right answer. Harper Lee presents many of these important decisions in To Kill A Mockingbird as ethical dilemmas, or situations that require a choice between two difficult alternatives. Both of these alternatives have unpleasant aspects and question morals and ethics. A person is put in an awkward position, with their mind saying contradicting things. These dilemmas are presented in many different ways. The

Morality is not a virtue that many can tolerate without a conscience. It was considered the critical awareness of humanity's standards of conduct that are accepted as proper. Yet, for Scout, morality becomes not only a principle, but also a necessity in order for her to survive in the prejudiced society of Maycomb County. It is solely the essence of ethics that causes her to frown upon the injustices brought about by intolerance. Thus, Scout's maturity towards understanding the vitality of morality allows her to become a noble individual in an unjust social order.

Lee writes, “ all they do is sing their hearts out for us…” (...). Atticus’s speech relates to this line. He shares what truly is paining their community and may convince the jury to do the right thing during his speech. He sang his heart out and made himself vulnerable to society. In this way, Atticus shows a sense peacefulness by saying, “This is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men” (273). By this, Atticus means there is no race that is more capable of an act than another. Lee portrays Atticus as not only honorable but also truthful and mindful of others. In this scene, he tries to apply logic to this situation to bring peace between colored and white people. By setting all people equal to one another, society begins to change. Atticus uses this line to represent the problem at hand and an underlying problem in his community. This problem, also known as “Maycomb’s usual disease” (117), is an issue of prejudice and cruelty. Citizens of the small town and those from the surrounding area catch this “disease” from a desire to fit in. Scout and Jem never caught this disease due to their father’s morality. In these ways, Atticus is like a mockingbird because he does the right thing and is able to be just. Atticus’s ability to treat all equally is the most important quality he possesses.

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.

The moral of To Kill a Mockingbird(TKAM) is shown all throughout the book. The characters are talking about it from the beginning of the book even to the end of the book on why some people and things haven’t done anything to you but yet people still have a problem with them. Jem and his sister Scout are the children of Atticus Finch, a hard working and caring lawyer. In the book the kids get told a moral by Atticus that it is a sin to Kill a Mockingbird. Later in the book the kids realize that he is right and there are signs of karma, racism and they realize that there society is not perfect because of what the moral means.

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