People's use of tolerance, discrimination, and integrity have changed tremendously in the past century. In the small town of Maycomb, Atticus, Scout, and several other characters face their own dilemmas that shape them as characters. Throughout the book, they display several different themes as they conquer these real-world problems. The town faces plenty of hardships throughout the course of the story, but always seems to overcome them. Harper Lee displays discrimination, tolerance, and integrity because they indicate the improvements and struggles people in the 1930’s faced, as well as help in order to change our current society.
Throughout the whole book, discrimination portrays how this society occurs to be so immensely affected by race.
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Atticus does his best to educate his children about the importance of tolerance as he performs several acts of tolerance throughout the novel. Atticus shows tolerance for Mrs. Dubose in this example, “You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew” (Lee 149), as he tells his children how impressed and how much he thought of her, although she acted extremely rude and unpleasant to him and his family. Atticus understands that she acts that way because of her old age and doesn’t look down upon her. Atticus performs another act of tolerance when he states, “You never really knew a man until you stood in his shoes and walk around in them” (Lee 374), as he emphasizes to his kids not to judge Boo Radley until they actually meet him. Scout and Jem thought Boo Radley portrays a monster figure until Scout actually meets him, he displays such kindness and gentleness. This shows how Atticus exists to be right, and the kids make assumptions about Boo without even knowing him. Atticus shows tolerance when he stands up for Calpurnia in front of Aunt Alexandra, “Calpurnia’s not leaving this house until she wants to. You may think otherwise, but I couldn’t have got along without her all these years. She’s a faithful member of this family and you’ll simply have to accept things the way they are” (Lee 182). Atticus has tolerance towards Calpurnia because he understands that she needs a job, and to leave her in the dust would show