To Kill A Mockingbird Virtue Analysis

Virtue can be different for everyone. For some, it may be as simple as kindness- giving something to a person in need. For others, virtue has a different, more ____(deep but in a more sophisticated way) meaning. Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird attempts to define virtue through the character Atticus, a public defense lawyer in a small Alabamian town. When he agrees to defend a black man wrongly accused of rape, both he and his children are victims of the town’s deeply ingrained prejudice and bias. John F. Kennedy also attempts to define virtue through his “Report to the American People on Civil Rights.” In this powerful speech, Kennedy states that to eradicate prejudice, each American citizen has to change and fight against social norms.

It is a main topic of both the novel and the speech, showing how the Civil Rights Movement was on the minds of everyone at that time. It is also a key piece of being virtuous. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Miss Maudie demonstrates this want for justice and equality after the trial, when she is comforting Aunt Alexandra after Tom’s death. She tells Aunt Alexandra not to lose hope- there are still people who believe in equality and fairness. Maudie says, “‘The handful of people in this town who say that fair play is not White Only; the handful of people who say a fair trial is for everybody, not just us; the handful of people with enough humility to think, when they look at a negro there but for the Lord’s kindness am I’” (Lee 316). Here, Maudie is voicing her definition of equality and justice, which demonstrates her virtue. John F. Kennedy also talks about equality- he says, “This is one country. It has become one country because all of us and all the people who came here had an equal chance to develop their talents. We cannot say to ten percent of the population that you can't have that right.” He demonstrates virtue by continuing to fight for equal rights and by talking extensively about equality in his