In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates through characters of various background that maturation can lead one to develop just morals if he or she is exposed to the right type of environment. Scout and Jem Finch are able to develop a sense of empathy, selflessness, and honesty because they are raised by Atticus and are exposed to people in their family who exhibit these traits. Scout’s character is shaped by maturation as the novel progresses, she initially is a girl characterized as somewhat bratty and uncompassionate.
However, with the counsel of Atticus who tells her, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it’ ” (Lee 30).
Scout gains an improved sense of empathy once she has matured a few years. Being the daughter of an intelligent man, such as Atticus, serves Scout well in developing values. Atticus is not the only one in her family who affects Scout with his display of empathy, maturity, and fairness; her Uncle Jack has equally righteous standards.
As a young child who picks up what she hears, Scout catches a habit of swearing unnecessarily. Scout doesn’t realize that it is immature to use swear words at inappropriate times. “But at supper that evening when I asked him to pass the damn ham, please, Uncle Jack pointed at me. ‘See me afterwards, young lady,’ he said” (Lee 79).
Scout is surrounded by the guidance of mature adults who can teach her better and Uncle Jack’s guidance causes Scout to understand that it’s improper to use profanities casually.
The Term Paper on Jem And Scout Atticus Dill Told
It all started when a girl named Jean Louise Finch, (Scout) was telling the story about her brother and how he broke his arm at the elbow. She went back two years to where they had tried to "Make Boo come out." Boo Radley, also known as Arthur Radley. Back before Jem and Scout were even born Arthur Radley and his family moved to May comb. There was Arthur, his older brother Nathan, and Mr. and ...
Scout receives appropriate counsel because she is exposed to mature adults who teach her valuable principles. Like Scout, Jem Finch is able to learn moral lessons from the people who guide him. As a nine year-old boy in the beginning of the novel, Jem’s perception of courage is simplistic and naive. He perceives bravery to be accepting dares and having the guts to do daring deeds. As demonstrated by Scout’s observations, “In all his life, Jem had never declined a dare” (Lee 13).
However, through various lessons about what it means to be courageous, Atticus teaches him the meaning of moral bravery.
Atticus says to his son “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what” (Lee 112).
Jem is able to learn what it truly means to be brave through the exposure to his father who manifests values of bravery, strength, and integrity. Being raised in the right kind of society allows one to develop strong values through maturation.
A prime example of the negative effect that maturation has on those who are not raised in an environment of love, maturity, and happiness are the Ewell family. The Ewell’s are “the disgrace of Maycomb for three generations” who are looked at as the black sheep of Maycomb county because “none of them had done an honest day’s work in [Atticus’s] recollection” (Lee 30).
Those raised in the background of the Ewell family “[are] people, but [live] like animals” and are not exposed to decent people, habits, or values.
The Ewells are adamant to adapt to the standards of Maycomb’s society. “ ‘There are ways of keeping them in school by force, but it’s silly to force people like the Ewells into a new environment—’” (Lee 30).
The Ewells display closed-mindedness by not willing to attend school for a change, which portrays them as immature people. One instance in which the Ewells demonstrate bad character is when Mayella Ewell accuses Tom Robinson, an innocent man, of rape. In actuality, Mayella is the one who was seducing Tom.
As a result, Mayella’s father beats her, and uses her injuries from the beatings as false evidence that Tom sexually assaulted her. Mayella’s actions are laced with dishonesty, selfishness, and a lack of empathy; her father’s are no better, revealing bigotry, prejudice, and selfishness. Mayella was not raised in a proper environment in which she could have been given the guidance to teach her the importance of honesty and other virtues, making her an unpleasant being. One’s surroundings play a large role in the ethics he or she develops.
The Essay on Bob Ewell Tom People Atticus
... are false rumors going on about them. People accused Tom of beating and raping Mayella Ewell, and people talk about Boo, and say tha ... together, they are two people with very different views. Atticus is more easy going when he raises up Jem and Scout, for example ... To Kill a Mocking Bird, by Harper Lee. There are many people in the book, some people are contradictory to one another (character ...
Atticus Finch is able to influence Scout and Jem in such a way that he teaches them values such as empathy, honesty, and bravery because he himself comes from a background of intelligence and moral education. Atticus chose of his own will to defend Tom Robinson in Mayella’s case when nobody else was willing to defend him because “If [he] didn’t [he] couldn’t hold up [his] head in town, [he] couldn’t represent this county in the legislature, [he] couldn’t even tell [Scout] or Jem not to do something again… he]” (Lee 75).
Atticus’s decision to defend Tom derived from his passion for empathy and equality. Scout and Jem are able to take after Atticus’s traits from being raised by him. Harper Lee demonstrates in To Kill a Mockingbird, using three characters that are raised in different backgrounds that maturation may teach people principles such as empathy, fairness, and nobility if they are brought about in an ethical community.
Being exposed to the correct kind of environment allows one to develop good habits in life and general moral values. Guidance is important in the process of growing up because it sets examples for those who are growing, who take after what they are taught in life. The people around us shape our qualities, affecting what kind of people we will become. Who we are depends on our surroundings, which is eventually who we become. The morals we develop depend on the environment we are in throughout maturation.