How Does Harper Lee Teach Life Lessons In To Kill A Mockingbird

Can a Novel Teach Life Lessons? In the novel ¨To Kill a Mockingbird¨, by Harper Lee, there seems to be many lessons to be learned from conversations and actions. Many of these can be referenced from Atticus’s or his children’s conversations. Which consistently concerned Tom Robinson’s case, or people within their county, and how the situation is explained to Scout, Dill, and Jem. Since the children are so young, especially Scout, it is hard for them to comprehend the beliefs and conspiracies that surround the town at this time. Therefore, they begin to learn many things about their town and how life works, in their time period. One of the major lessons is presented in chapter three, on page 39, when Atticus tells Scout ¨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.” In this advice, he is portraing a thought that the child may have never come across if it was not for her father. In a sense, he is telling her that not every one is the same, they may not have the same morals, understandings, or values as her. This point is further supported in the same chapter, but on page 40, when Harper wrote ¨...if Walter and

In chapter eleven, page 148, ¨She said she was going to leave this world beholding to nothing and nobody...she said she meant to break herself of it before she died, and that is what she did.¨ Mrs. Dubose is elderly, ill, and addicted to morphine, however, she still has courage both mentally and physically. She uses these traits to leave the Earth on her terms, and stop her addiction, in order to die happily. On page 149 Atticus says, ¨...She had her own views about things, a lot different from mine, maybe...¨ He is also showing courage, by admitting others can have different stances or opinions on topics. These two people's individual actions and beliefs are still comparable to today's modern