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.
“Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.”(Lee 119 ) To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee about two young kids named Scout and Jem who live in the town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s. Maycomb is a town infected with racism like much of the south in that time, but it is also a quiet town where nothing really happens. That is until Tom Robinson, a black man, is accused by the Ewell’s, a white family, of raping their daughter. As Tom’s trial occurs, a chain of events is set into place that teaches Scout and Jem about the harsh reality of innocent people who fall victim to circumstance. That is why it is a sin to kill a mockingbird because mockingbirds symbolize innocent people who are hurt by evil, and it is a sin to hurt innocent people.
“I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird”(page 119) In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the mockingbird is one of the most symbolic objects in the novel. It represents the innocence of someone not affected by the evilness of society. In the novel, there are three people, or mockingbirds, that are innocent affected by society.
Lee uses the mockingbird as a symbol of evoking empathy in the novel. She writes, “I’d rather you shoot a tin can in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after the birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit them, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (Lee119). Atticus is explaining to Scout to not kill the mockingbird because it’s a sin. Lee evokes empathy by using the mockingbird to symbolize innocence.
Factors that influence our moral growth is based on what society thinks. Experiences that help us judge what’s right and wrong are our morals and based on what society thinks. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee a women named Mayella Ewell falsely accuses Tom Robinson of raping her. Throughout the story it shows how much society can impact what you believe in and racism. “The negros having waited for the white people to go upstairs, began to come in” P.g 218.
In “Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development”, there are three levels and six stages. These stages say how one’s experience helps them develop moral understanding. How they have grown and start understanding right from wrong. In the novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, narrated by Scout shows events that have happened in her life that made a significant impact.
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.
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.
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.
Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Alabama in 1930’s. The main characters are a family of three, Scout, Jem, and Atticus Finch. In the novel there are many different examples of moral education but, the meaning behind moral education is much more important than examples. Moral education is the building blocks of society's outlook on you and your upbringing. Not only in the novel do characters get judged because of their sense of moral education, but this is also seen in modern day.
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.
Ethics and morality play an extensive role in how we treat others and are treated in return. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, an unfair court case, a misunderstood man, and symbolism are used to illustrate the theme of ethics and morality. To begin with, the first appearance of the symbolism is when Scout and Jem were gifted air rifles for Christmas and Atticus told Jem that he could, “Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (92). Atticus tells him this because mockingbirds have done nothing wrong, and only make beautiful music for the people to listen to.
Many people believe that education is the most important tool that a child needs to make great changes in the world. While one part of the society thinks that way, the other part of society thinks that character is the real foundation that every kid needs to be successful in life. Education consumes a considerable component in children’s live. In this book there are many allusions about education in the lives of Jem and Scout. Jem learns about all kinds of things at school, and he also learns valuable lessons from Atticus.
Children are required to go to school almost ten out of the twelve months of the year to get an education. They learn their basic math, science, and english studies with a teacher and planned lessons of exactly what they should know. However, the education of a child does not have to be reliant of the school system. In some cases, children's lives and what they observe from the world around them may educate them more that the school system can. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, two children, Jem and Scout Finch, are growing up in the racist community of Maycomb County, Alabama.
Maycomb’s education system is depicted as a failure throughout chapters 2 and 3. Lee’s description of the student’s poor learning attitudes, the teacher’s unskillful teaching methods, all highlights the failure of Maycomb’s education system. Lee depicts the failure of the Maycomb education system through the description of elderly students in Scout’s first grade class. When the class was questioned about their knowledge on alphabets, Scout explained by saying “Everybody did; most of the first grade had failed it last year.” The adjective “failed” depicts that the students did not learn much in Maycomb and was unable to take in knowledge under the Maycomb education system.
