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To Kill A Mockingbird Essay

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Raising children in the era of Jim Crow laws provided a unique teaching experience for Atticus to provide to Scout and Jem. These laws followed the Southern societal ideas of the separation between races, but also demonstrated a division between a community where individuals held different moral ideas. To Kill a Mockingbird explores human morality from the perception of a six year old child, providing a different perspective on important issues of this time period. Scout’s understanding of morality develops from her once simple idea of an individual being either good or evil to a much more complete comprehension of its complexity. In retrospect, Scout as the narrator revels in her naivety and child-like innocence throughout her …show more content…

Harper Lee continually utilizes topics of classism and racism to frame the way the children are being taught from many influential interactions in this novel. Aunt Alexandra reinforces classism as the ideal world when she disapproves of Scout’s convening with Walter. Referencing the Cunninghams, Aunt Alexandra replies, “Because he is trash… I’ll not have you around him, picking up his habits and learning Lord knows what…there is no doubt in my mind that they’re good folks, but they’re not our kind of folks.” (299-301) Scout is faced with a moral dilemma when these conflicting perspectives arise as she begins to realize that judging someone as good or bad is an incomplete assessment as shades of grey exist. This idea of separation is also held by Lula, a black woman, which is made apparent when Calpurnia brings Scout and Jem to her church. Calpurnia defends the children’s right to worship in the African church when Lula approaches them, “You ain’t got no business bringin’ white chillum here—they got their church. We got our’n…” This showed the kids that black people, whom carried most of the weight of discrimination, could also encourage and uphold this division. The story’s point of view is used to show a childlike understanding of the social world and its transition and differences from that of an adult’s perception. Scout is the youngest

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