Virtuous Parent In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

In the eyes of children, parents can be either viewed as their heroes or their real life villains. Being a parent is undeniably one of the most challenging tasks that a human can undertake due to the lack of guidelines and standards established for those parenting roles. As a result, parents are able to take different approaches to handling their children. These “different approaches” can either be praised or derided, but when a virtuous parent is in sight, their timeless efforts are to be appreciated. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, author Harper Lee demonstrates what a virtuous parent is supposed to look like through the character Atticus Finch. Atticus Finch, a single working father, has all of the desired qualities of a superior parental

The question of how much discipline is necessary to instill a lesson in a child is a problem that parents frequently face. Based on clinical and developmental psychologist Diana Baumrind, “... authoritative parents are good at setting standards…their disciplinary methods are assertive and supportive…” (Cherry 3). With their disciplinary action, considerate parents will put forth the effort to teach their child a lesson; this causes a mark to be made on that child to know the difference between right and wrong. Atticus had to once enforce a punishment onto Jem due to an action of passion that he committed; Jem was never one to be violent, but when Mrs. Dubose (the Finch’s elderly neighbor) insults his father, he will do anything to defend him. Atticus was not too excited to hear this news, he suggested that, “‘...you [Jem and Scout] to go down and have a talk with Mrs. Dubose…Come straight home afterward’” (Lee 104). Atticus learned that Jem destroyed all of Mrs. Dubose’s camellia bushes after having an outburst because Mrs. Dubose was using racial slurs against Atticus. Atticus was more concerned about how to teach Jem that what he did was wrong than whether someone called him a racial slur. Atticus knew something of this sort was going to happen eventually because of the tension between him and Maycomb’s racist citizens. Words do not offend Atticus easily, but Jem and Scout are just two kids who love their father, he is worried about how they will handle all of the hatred projected towards himself. Bigotry is highly significant in this context because the hate being projected onto Atticus and his children further proves how much harder he had it as a parent than the average father. Atticus did his absolute best to keep Jem and Scout away from the cruelty of Maycomb’s