On July 11, 1960 Harper Lee published her first novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. To date over 40 million copies of this chart topper have been sold to the public. The story is told from a child’s point of view and how she survives the challenges of racism and growing up. To Kill a Mockingbird also illustrates that challenging the opinions of others can aid in one’s moral improvement; Jem Finch experiences the most developmental progress through expanding his moral ideas and beliefs. Coming from a strong moral figure like Atticus, Jem is expected to become a respectable young adult.
At the end of all three of these characters’ trails and tribulations, Atticus Finch and Thomas more, the characters whom followed moral principles and made their choices based on what is right, are the ones who are satisfied with themselves. Even though Atticus lost the trail and Thomas lost his life, they are happy and they know that they have done all they can to help other people and still abide to their own conscience. Alex, on the other hand, wants to change at the end of the novella. He isn’t happy with the way his life is, and he wants to make his life better for himself and also for the people around him. He is on the verge of adapting a moral lifestyle.
“Hypocrisy is the mother of all evil and racial prejudice is her favorite child” (Don King). In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, a young girl named Scout is receiving a first hand experience of racism and its brutality. In Chapter 26, during school, Scout’s teacher, Mrs. Gates explains what a democracy is and how it differs from the events taking place in Germany with Hitler and the Jews. Using her biased opinion, Mrs. Gates shows Scout that the world can be a cruel place in more ways than one. During the scene, “Mrs. Gates,” Scout learns that hypocrisy exists in the most trusted through the character of Mrs. Gates, the internal conflict of Mrs. Gates and racism, and the settings of both the school and the Finch home.
The most straightforward answer is that morality is the human attempt to define what is right and wrong about our actions and thoughts, and what is good and bad about being who we are. Every one of the three “novels” we’ve read this semester Le Morte D’Arthur, Frankenstein, and Lord of the Flies fixates on inquiries of human morality: How is morality defined? What is the origin of morality? What is the relationship of human society to morality? Can humans truly be moral and good?
What- The Second Continental Congress followed the First Continental Congress and took place in Philadelphia, May 5th, 1775. It took charge of the Colonies’ war attempts and would eventually lead to the United States Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. Who- Some people who were involved in this included, John Hancock from Massachusetts, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, and Benjamin Franklin from Pennsylvania along with Patrick Henry, George Washington, and John Adams. Many of the 56 delegates who had attended the First Continental Congress were at the second.
What is morality? The Oxford Dictionary defines it as “a particular system of values and principles of conduct, especially one held by a specified person or society.” In the book A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the two main characters, Gene and Finny have very different moral attitudes. Gene’s morals are realistic and applicable to the real world while Finny’s are honorable, righteous, and ideal, but lack a sense of reality and as a result, he is unable to accept the truth about human nature, and ends up with serious consequences. Although Finny is extremely righteous and honorable, his ethics lack a sense of reality and as a result, he ends up with serious consequences.
Hilary Hinton “Zig” Ziglar, a famous American author and motivational speaker once stated that, “With integrity, you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide. With integrity, you will do the right thing, so you will have no guilt.” Integrity and morals are learned and practiced by countless communities around the globe. A feeling of making amends, preventing disgraceful outcomes, and simply doing the right thing without expecting special compensation for it are the universal fundamentals that make up the value of integrity. Harper Lee’s
Moral courage, spiritual courage, social courage, emotional courage, and physical courage is shown in To Kill A Mockingbird which is a good thing. Just like in the beginning of the book when Scout describes how Jem wouldn’t give up even though his left arm wasn’t normal he shows moral courage, spiritual courage, emotional courage, and physical courage. All Jem dreams of doing is joining the football team, but his arm wasn’t good enough, and he is giving his best and showing the four most important types of courage which are moral courage, spiritual courage, emotional courage, and physical courage. He went ahead and pursued his dreams even though he did not imagine to be like the way he is when his left arm is damaged, but he still followed his dream of playing football, and he did not make his damaged elbow wreck his Dreams.
Academia: A Georgia Tech police officer is under investigation for fatally shooting a 21 year old student. Tyler Beck was the officer who shot Scout Schultz. According to the GBI, Scout called 911 about a man having a knife and a possible gun on the west side of campus (Staff, 2017). When the officers arrived Scout didn’t want to follow their demands which were to drop a utility tool that didn’t have the blade extended (Boone, 2017).
Jem’s moral development in chapters 1-16 in To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem has significantly grown from a childish, playful boy that he was from the beginning of the novel to a more calm, composed and mature figure resemblance to that of his father, Atticus. Before maturity, Jem bore a childish concept of courage. His concept of bravery was through the acceptance of dares imposed upon him. According to Scout, Jem had "never declined a dare" throughout his entire life. This exhibited his stupidity, rather than his bravery, especially when it was in Jem's nature to "love honor before his head", signifying that not only does Jem accepts dares blindly, he does not think of the consequences of a dare, or about his safety in performing a dare.
Humans live in a world where moral values are very clearly set determining what is good and what is bad. We know what scares us and how racism should be treated. Nevertheless, this was not the case back in Alabama during the 1950s. In the famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee narrates the lives of the people of Maycomb, Alabama, focusing on the story of Scout and Jem Finch, and the case of a said to be rape. In this emotion filled narrative, readers learn how life was back then not only in general, but for the separate social statuses that there was.
The definition of moral is this: “Concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character.” But, what is right, and what is wrong? Is there a straightforward, universal answer to that? The play Antigone addresses this. The two main characters are both acting upon what they see as morally just and right.
Henry Kravis once said,”If you don 't have integrity, you have nothing. You can 't buy it. You can have all the money in the world, but if you are not a moral and ethical person, you really have nothing. Morals are the principles on which one 's judgments of right and wrong are based. The morality of a person define what a person’s decisions will be, or could this be influenced by other things.
Purity vs. Immorality. What do these two things have in common? But most of all how are they different? Purity is the freedom from adulteration or contamination, where as immorality is the state or quality of being immoral; wickedness. The only thing similar about these two ideas is they both involve mankind.
Harper Lee once wrote that “Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what”. Moral courage means doing the right thing despite the risk of any consequences. Anyone can have moral courage, no matter who you are. Many authors often use different literary elements to develop themes in their writings. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the literary elements mood and imagery to teach her audience about doing the right thing or moral courage.
