Only people with psychic abilities can truly know how a person is going to act, or do they just have a keen eye? Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg has made a theory of moral development, describing the different stages in mortality and maturity which almost always determines how a person is going to act based on their morals. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, most of the story is about the two main characters, Scout and Jem, maturing because of certain events the children encounter. However, the children in the story aren’t the only one with developing mortalities. Kohlberg’s chart of mortality can be used to reveal a character and what their intentions are, which also can be used to help bring the plot along. You can see these stages in characters such as Bob Ewell, Aunt Alexandra, and Atticus Finch. Aunt Alexandra who according to the chart is on Level two Stage four: Maintaining Social Order. With this stage of mortality, the person only does what they believe is right, but no for what they believe in. This type of person also looks for approval from other people or a society and judges things based on other people’s doings. In To Kill a …show more content…
This is because of Atticus’s developed mortality, Stage six of Level three: Universal Principals. This type of character is independent and follows the “internalized principals of justice,” (Kohlberg) which Atticus is known to do. When Scout asks Atticus how he is so brave and wise, he simply states, “You just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anyone says to you, don’t let ‘em get your goat. Try fighting with your head for a change…it’s a good one, even if it does resist learning.”(76) This also reflects on when Atticus defends Tom Robinson, an African American, of rape. This is something that wasn’t accepted in Atticus’s society, yet he used this mantra and defended Tom in
Understanding perspective is essential to understanding people. Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird presents this idea in multiple passages of her writing. It can be seen in the rough, unknown troubles that people face despite their wrongful actions. As well as the rumours that are untrue and give complete false impressions of people. Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird uses these topics to illustrate the dangers of judging others before getting to know them.
"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." A quote by Atticus Finch a loving single father of two children in a novel by Harper Lee. The story takes place during the 1930s and the Great Depression, in a small (made-up) town called Maycomb Alabama. Scout now an adult is narrating what she experienced and felt in ages 6-9. She gives details of her family, school, and just everything she goes through. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, she also talks about her brother Jem, who starts as a careless young boy that slowly starts getting more mature. Jem changing throughout the story helps show a little bit more of how the story develops and why character development is important in making a good novel.
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.
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.
The way and rate that people mature at can be directly attributed to the values and beliefs of the society that surrounds an individual. It is undeniable that society’s perspective on many controversial issues will generally be adopted by the younger generations in a given society. Moreover, the exposure to significant events, coupled with the major influence of family members, can have an enormous impact on how an individual matures. Additionally, family members greatly help each other develop into moral adults by instilling in each other values that will ultimately determine an individual’s character. In Harper Lee’s timeless classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, the constant reiteration of Atticus Finch’s values, in
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”).
In the book to To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a young girl is being put through a variety of challenges that have set her up to learn about aspects of life. Scout, the young girl is being put through situations throughout the book, and is going through different moral developments that have been set up into three levels by Kohlberg, a psychologist. Kohlberg gathered this information by giving people of different ages, different questions that would identify their moral stage (“Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development”). For example, some of the questions would be; if you were trapped in a room full of innocent people and someone dying would be the only way to save everyone else in the room would you risk yourself? On that
In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird a major theme is the loss of innocence. Whether from emotional abuse, racial prejudice or learning, Boo, Tom, and Scout all lose their innocence in one sense or another. The prejudice that each character endures leads to their loss. Through the responses of Boo, Tom, and Scout, Harper Lee shows how each character responded differently to their loss of innocence.
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.
Stage 2 is a little more open minded, but not enough to look at the “big picture.”
“Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.” (Lee 101) In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, a black man named Tom Robinson is being accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. White man, Atticus Finch, was given Tom Robinson’s case and was determined to fight for Tom’s innocence. Even if fighting for Mr. Robinson meant putting his children Jem and Scout in danger, he would still be teaching them right from wrong.
“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”. Discuss this quote from Atticus in relation to 3 characters from the novel.
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.
A Mockingbird is a grayish songbird found in tropical America. The book to Kill A Mockingbird says that it is a sin to kill a Mockingbird. (Lee 103) In the story To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout is a young girl who has a pretty good life in Maycomb Alabama. But her curiosity began when Dill came to Maycomb for the summer and she started becoming more interested in Boo Radley and why he always stays in his house. But then the story takes an unexpected turn when Atticus takes the Tom Robinson trial and Scout starts to see that this world is crueler than she thought and she starts to question everything she even knew. Throughout To Kill A Mockingbird, the mockingbird theory shows us that some people are like mockingbirds by
Atticus is compassionate, this allows him to sympathize and forgive. Furthermore, He tries to incorporate this trait into his children. An example of him demonstrating this is when he talks to Scout about school. “You’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from their point of view-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”(30). this quote demonstrates compassion from Atticus because he explains to scout that everyone thinks and feels differently. Also, he tries to help Scout because she did not want to go to school anymore. One of the reasons is because she did not understand why Miss Caroline did not allow her to read at home. Scout use this compassionate quotes from Atticus to realize Miss Caroline felt mad because her knowing how to read was not a part of Miss Caroline's plan to teach the kids. Another example of Atticus