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To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee Essay

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To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

To be educated is to obtain or develop a certain knowledge or skill by a learning process. There are many distinct learning processes, some more explicit than others. In the first part of To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, education, in one form or another, is very significant. Both inside and outside of the classroom, Scout continually gains experience through education from both her brother, Jem, or by her wise and tolerant father, Atticus Finch. Although the education of children is more apparent in this novel, the education of adults is not otiose.

Scout and Jem learn that Calpurnia, the faithful Negro cook, is their friend. She has been largely …show more content…

Scout finds out that Boo Radley's father has locked him up for being arrested many years ago for swearing in front of a woman. Scout learns that religion, especially "foot-washing" Baptists, can lead to cruelty, even inhumanity. This is significant as she starts to pity Boo who we later find out is a "mockingbird" character, much like Tom Robinson.

Compromise is better than conflict as Scout prefers to have Atticus keep reading her stories as well as learning the "Dewey Decimal System." Conflict results in problems and it is obvious to Scout that in order for her welfare it is better to avoid problems. As Jem tells Scout, the new way of teaching which Mrs. Caroline is practicing is one which the entire school will use eventually, and one in which " You don't hafta learn that much out of books that way." State education is therefore restrictive, not stimulating. Mrs. Caroline is miffed that Scout can read and blames Atticus for "doing it all wrong." Scout also learned how to write as Calpurnia taught her while working in the kitchen. It seems rather ironic, as Calpurnia doesn't fir the stereotypical image of a black woman - rough and illiterate.

In the beginning of chapter 9, Cecil Jacobs, a young boy, announced "Scout Finch's daddy defended niggers." Although Scout had promised not to fight she couldn't resist the temptation

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