Prejudice and Morality of a Mockingbird Throughout the page turning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, I have discovered multiple themes and lessons that not only Scout has learned, but many other characters have learned, as well. Over time in the book, Scout’s perspective changes on various people and things, such as Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, her father Atticus, and even the people in Maycomb. After finishing the book, Scout realizes that you should get to know a person, and you “have to walk around in someone else’s skin” sometimes. You shouldn’t judge a person by what others say about that person, but instead get to know a person for yourself. In different parts of the story, Atticus’ words about walking around in other people’s skin are constantly repeated, and Scout refers to them at times in certain chapters. After reading Lee’s novel, one other theme in To Kill a Mockingbird is that you should stick to your morals, despite what others say about a person or thing. Throughout the book, Atticus is the only one who really believes Tom Robinson is innocent. Sticking to Atticus’s morals, he defends Tom Robinson, and does not pay any attention to what the rest of the people in Maycomb do or say. This is a prime example of morality, which is doing what is right despite what others think or say. To conclude, I created a collage to demonstrate these two themes in Harper Lee’s book with various different images. To begin, in the novel, everyone knows that Atticus is defending
I believe that our convictions can be pernicious or used for malicious intent. When a clash of opinions is mishandled that there are frequently repercussions and often calamitous outcomes follow.
Lawrence Kohlberg, a professor at Harvard, creates a theory of human moral development. Since his theory was an expansion of Jean Piaget moral development of children, he elucidates of his theory to have series of stages. Each stage were categorized into three levels: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. During each level there are 2 stages which are consequent for moral development because they are action that manifest on who we are.
Scout is one of many characters in the historical fiction book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee that develop as the story progresses. She grows throughout the novel by becoming more aware of her surroundings as the story progresses and reveals more to the reader. Also, Scout over the course of the book starts to realize what kind of man Boo Radley actually is and begins to trust him more towards the end of the book. She even walks with him and talks to him as if he were a friend of her, which he could very well be at the end of the book. Finally, Scouts morals develop by in the beginning of the book having started at level one of Kohlberg's moral development chart, but towards the end of the book reaching level two.
Black and white, right and wrong; do decisions that simple and clear even exist? Does a decision ever mean gaining everything without giving anything up? Many characters in To Kill A Mockingbird are forced to make difficult, heart wrenching decisions that have no clear right answer. Harper Lee presents many of these important decisions in To Kill A Mockingbird as ethical dilemmas, or situations that require a choice between two difficult alternatives. Both of these alternatives have unpleasant aspects and question morals and ethics. A person is put in an awkward position, with their mind saying contradicting things. These dilemmas are presented in many different ways. The
In books, many characters go through moral development. The book To Kill A Mockingbird shows many examples of characters that go through this development and characters that help others develop. While there are many different characters in the book, the focus is on the development of Jem and Scout Finch with the help of Atticus and Calpurnia. The kids are introduced when they are young and over the span of the book, the adults teach and help them, making them have a different understanding of the world only two years later. With the guidance of Atticus and Cal, Jem and Scout go through a big moral change.
Morality is not a virtue that many can tolerate without a conscience. It was considered the critical awareness of humanity's standards of conduct that are accepted as proper. Yet, for Scout, morality becomes not only a principle, but also a necessity in order for her to survive in the prejudiced society of Maycomb County. It is solely the essence of ethics that causes her to frown upon the injustices brought about by intolerance. Thus, Scout's maturity towards understanding the vitality of morality allows her to become a noble individual in an unjust social order.
Lawrence Kohlberg is known for his theory of moral development developed in 1958. His theory was dependent on the thinking of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and American philosopher John Dewey. It consists of three levels of moral reasoning: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. These levels are based on the degree to which an individual accommodates to the conventional standards of society. Each level aquires two stages that serve as different standards of sophistication in moral reasoning. Overall, Kohlberg affirms that moral development is a process of maturing that emerges from thinking about about moral issues (“Kohlberg’s Moral Development”).
What is moral growth? Who is influenced you in what you believe in or what influenced in you what you believe in? Moral development is when children develop behaviors to perform in society. Many things can influence moral growth. The three factors that influence moral growth are parental guidance, environment we live in or around, and religion.
what a bad father he is and why his family have been given a bad name.
A moral: “To be concerned with the principles of right and wrong behaviour, and the goodness or badness of a character”. Harper Lee’s, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, evidently shows the importance of morals, and how Jem and Scout's development is affected and modified as the plot unfolds. In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”, there are multiple debatable morals induced by Jem and Scout, and both their ways of being. Scout was able to progress throughout the plot, exceeding herself along the way. Jem as well had an increase of growth as the novel developed.
Lawrence Kohlberg was an American psychologist and educator known for his theory of moral development. He was a professor at Harvard University before he was a developmental psychologist. He later moved into the field of moral education. Jean Piaget (Swiss psychologist), John Dewey (American philosopher), and James Mark Baldwin (American philosopher and psychologist) all influenced Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, though Piaget 's work heavily influenced Kohlberg’s. Kohlberg ran tests to prove his theory.He tested 72 boys from middle and lower class families who were either 10, 13 or 16. Later in his research, he tested both boys and girls from different states and countries other than Chicago. Kohlberg found
“Those who improve with age embrace the power of personal growth and personal achievement and begin to replace youth with wisdom, innocence with understanding, and lack of purpose with self-actualization.” -Bo Bennett
If you were a parent would you want the best for your kids? Would you want to teach them to search out for the true meaning of dignity and respect? This was the goal of one father, Atticus Finch. Being a nearly fifty-year-old man with extremely young children he wanted to share his wisdom and firsthand experiences with his children to shape them into a respectable young man and woman. Throughout his life, Atticus is taught many experiences himself about not judging someone, and to stand up for the helpless and defenseless. Some important morals that he carried through to teach his children in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird is to never judge someone by their social class or race, and to fight for the justice of all the people of Maycomb.
In Harper Lees’s masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird, moral education is a theme that only seems to bloom within the Finch household and is severely lacking in all of Maycomb County. The main character, Scout Finch, is growing in an environment where manners and education matter, this is a quality that can be attributed to the teachings of Atticus Finch and Calpurnia. In a world that is corrupted by prejudice, moral education is form of behavior that stands out, Harper Lee provides examples of this in Calpurnia’s discipline at home, Atticus’s ethical guidance and explanations for the reasoning behind his defense of Tom Robinson, and Scout’s bewilderment at Ms. Gate’s hypocrisy. Moral education is a theme that plays a core role in the development of the title characters as well as the deterioration of the town’s moral standards.
The moral of To Kill a Mockingbird(TKAM) is shown all throughout the book. The characters are talking about it from the beginning of the book even to the end of the book on why some people and things haven’t done anything to you but yet people still have a problem with them. Jem and his sister Scout are the children of Atticus Finch, a hard working and caring lawyer. In the book the kids get told a moral by Atticus that it is a sin to Kill a Mockingbird. Later in the book the kids realize that he is right and there are signs of karma, racism and they realize that there society is not perfect because of what the moral means.