Atticus: Parent of Love and Discipline “There's a lot of ugly things in this world, son. I wish I could keep 'em all away from you. That's never possible.” (Lee, Ch. 13) Atticus was a wise, fair man in To Kill A Mockingbird, but more importantly a father to Scout and Jem Finch in the fictional town of Maycomb. Unlike most of the parenting in this 1930’s town in Alabama, Atticus built his parenting style around respect, love, and discipline. These aspects go along with the two key doctrines of each parenting style, the amount of warmth and control given and received. The four precedents of parenting styles are based on warmth and control and the balance of each. Many characters in this book demonstrated different parenting styles, by their …show more content…
There were several instances where Atticus had thought uniquely in the town of Maycomb; these were the thoughts about racism, respect, and honesty. His views of racism were opposite of most people, because he believed that each man is equal no matter the color. In Maycomb, the southerners thought that African Americans were trash and were to be treated and have the same rights of a modern-day animal. (Lee, Ch.23) Atticus believed that everyone was the same, and deserved an equal chance at court and an equal chance at an enjoyable life. He thought different than the Maycomb people in regard to respect, when dealing with Boo Radley. Boo was the topic of conversation and was never on the good end of the discussion; but this propelled Atticus to teach his kids that you can not judge any man, until you have walked in their skin. (Lee, Chapter 3) The third issue that the people of Maycomb and Atticus had disagreed on was honesty. The Ewells lied about the Tom Robinson case, just to cover up the abuse Mr. Ewell inflicted on his kids, and the town went along with it. This is the most evident lie that the book could tell, and Atticus was against it. He had always told his children to be honest and never hide anything. When Atticus thought Jem was the one to stab Mr. Ewell, he immediately told the sheriff to tell everyone in the town the truth. Atticus could not stand lies being thrown around, simply so one could escape the true events that had taken