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Harper Lee's Argumentative Essay

Decent Essays

““Scout,” said Atticus, “nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don’t mean anything─ like snot nose. It’s hard to explain─ ignorant, trashy people use it when they think somebody’s favoring Negroes over and above themselves. It’s slipped into usage of some people like ourselves, when they want a common, ugly term to call someone.” “You aren’t really a nigger-lover, than, are you?” “I certainly am. I try my best to love everybody─ baby, it’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you.”” (Lee, 120) This is an important, educating passage, especially for Scout. To Scout, this may help her cope with all the insults she receives about her father. Now that her father had explained to her that being called a ‘nigger-lover’ isn’t truly an insult as it is meant to be, perhaps Scout will be able to handle her temper better when people yell horrendous things at her about her father and possibly not get as offended. Atticus here also explains that racists use the term ‘nigger-lover’ to suggest that a person is trying to give African Americans special rights, but Atticus points out that he is simply …show more content…

Scout evaluates people based on their actions; therefore people who did the best they could with the tools they were given Scout considers good, respectable people. Aunt Alexandra, on the other hand, assesses people based on their family history. The longer a family has stuck to their roots and the longer they have held their plot of land the more highly she thinks of that family. This shows a lot about Aunt Alexandra and Scout’s values and

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