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How Is Scout Punished In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Dominick Goodwin Mr. Raethz/Ms. Miller English 1- 2 16 March 2023 Title It is a parent’s job to include the importance of discipline in their child's life. In To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee, a young girl is punished by her uncle for fighting with her cousin. The young girl, Scout, is known as very protective towards the people she loves and will not hold back about anything. During Christmas time, Scout and her family are visiting Francis and his family. Francis says to Scout that her dad, Atticus, is a disgrace to the family for defending an African American in court. Scout gets very offended by this and punches Francis in the mouth. Scout's Uncle Jack sees this situation and physically spanks Scout as a punishment. After fighting with Francis, Scout was unfairly punished because she was standing up for her …show more content…

After Scout gets spanked she tells her uncle Jack, “Well, in the first place you never stopped to gimme a chance to tell you my side of it- you just lit right into me” (Lee 97). Scout’s punishment was clearly unfair and it did not help her because her uncle never gave her a chance to tell her side of the story and just jumped to conclusions. Her punishment was undeserved because she was not listened to and she was standing up for her family. In addition, Scout could have been mentally affected by this, “Physical punishment may also affect brain development. One study found that young adults who were spanked repeatedly had less gray matter, the part of the brain involved with self-control, and performed lower on IQ tests as young adults than the control group” (“What’s”). Since Scout was spanked, she could have been affected mentally and if this keeps happening to her she can definitely be affected over time and it will become worse and worse. The punishment given to Scout was unfair and should have not been right because it can affect her thinking and well

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