“You never really understood a person until you consider things from his point of view—until you climb into his skin and walk around it.” pg 30. Atticus tries to explain to Jem and Scout that it is possible to live with right and wrong without losing hope. By comprehending the lesson Atticus is able to admire Mrs. Dubose’s courage while ignoring her racism. Scout’s growth in the novel into adulthood is guided by her understanding of Atticus’s lessons and her living. Throughout the reading Scout and Jem make the transition from innocence to maturity.
The Importance of Moral Education Because exploration of the novel’s larger moral questions takes place within the perspective of children, the education of children is necessarily involved in the development of all of the novel’s themes. In a sense, the plot of the story charts Scout’s moral education, and the theme of how children are educated—how they are taught to move from innocence to adulthood—recurs throughout the novel (at the end of the book, Scout even says that she has learned practically everything except algebra). This theme is explored most powerfully through the relationship between Atticus and his children, as he devotes himself to instilling a social conscience in Jem and Scout. The scenes at school provide a direct counterpoint to Atticus’s effective education of his children: Scout is frequently confronted with teachers who are either frustratingly unsympathetic to children’s needs or morally hypocritical. As is true of To Kill a Mockingbird’s other moral themes, the novel’s conclusion about education is that the most important lessons are those of sympathy and understanding, and that a sympathetic, understanding approach is the best way to teach these lessons.
The story was told in first person perspective, with Scout speaking. I think that this mainly allowed us to follow Scout’s personal development; it allowed us to see Scout’s thoughts and emotions. For example, in the beginning of the book, Scout enjoyed terrorizing Boo Radley in an attempt to make him get out of his house. Later on, though, she realized that doing this was really just hurting an innocent person. On page 279, Scout finally understood Boo well, and she felt that she had developed so much that “there wasn’t much else left for her to learn, except possibly algebra.” This sort of progress in Scout’s character made the story much more interesting for me, and helped me to better recognize the messages that the author was trying to convey.
The second stanza explores how Mrs Tilscher is able to protect the children, from the horrors of “Bready and Hindley”, making sure that their fears are “faded” away, and the way in which she “loved you” suggests safety for the children, contrasted with the idea of horror expressed earlier on. Duffy is also writing in the second person therefore making the poem more personal to the reader. The third stanza begins the transition as children enter their last days of primary school. They aren’t fully grown up yet, shown by the “inky tadpoles”; tadpoles have not yet matured into frogs, which act as a metaphor for the children showing how they are not quite ready to become adults yet. This change emphasises the impermanence of life and links the children to adolescence: the stage in between being a child and an adult.
The voice of Frank shows the immaturity of him during his childhood. That juvenile voice magnified the intensity of the book and grabs a hold of the readers attention. Frank McCourt, it seems, intended to write this book for anyone who has lived, or is living a hard childhood. This audience could relate with what he went through. I think Frank is trying to teach that the struggles that you go through only make you stronger when you have to face the world.
Eric Lowry ELIT1040 F Coming of Age Essay 2 July, 2012 Mark Twain in his book “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” uses a variety of situations and experiences to provide Huck a moral education. Initially he is exposed to the rules and values of society by the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson. Huck’s education progresses with his exposure to Jim and the numerous adventures they encounter. Huck, by the end of the book, has gained the wisdom and moral values to form his own opinions of society’s standards. Twain imparts a powerful message for the reader to obtain their own moral education so they too can judge the values of their society.
The concept of boundaries plays an important role in the growing of a child. Harper Lee, in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, explores many of the different types of boundaries necessary in a child's life. Scout and Jem, who are the main characters of this novel, come across many boundaries as they grow. Some are set by themselves, others are set by Calpurnia, their cook, and still others are shown to them by their father Atticus. Had they not had these things shown to them or set upon them, Scout and Jem would be left to do anything and everything they pleased.
2. What are his qualities and flaws? His qualities are brave, leader of men, and concern for his men. He is brave by facing the enchantress Circe in order to change his men back to human. He is a leader of men by he encouraged his men to stay strong even though the times were tough.
I did not hear him stir again.” p. 64. The composes uses her narrator Scout to create a clear image of a young boy, visibly shaken by his ordeal of retrieving the lost pants therefore reinforcing the degree of courage it must have taken for him to even contemplate undertaking such a feat. Another character who is representative of this theme is Mrs Dubose. The audience is made acutely aware of the depth of her courage in chapter 11 when she finally passes, her death brought on more rapidly because she refused to die whilst addicted to morphine. Atticus tells his son that he wanted him to read to Mrs Dubose so he would understand that real courage was not demonstrated by a gun.
To Kill A Mockingbird Literary Elements In the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Lee provides the novel with substantial amounts of literary elements. Of the many, on page 96, we are able to see more of Scout’s character and how her surrounding events bring out more of her inner personality. On page 96, Lee writes “My stomach turned to water and I nearly threw up when Jem held out the blanket and crept toward me.” This metaphor specifically focuses on how Scout felt upon hearing that Boo Radley was the one who put the blanket on her. Despite Boo doing the good deed of trying to keep Scout warm, Scout emphasizes that she was so shocked and frightened from hearing this she felt her stomach becoming as cold as water. This shows Scout’s prejudicial character for feeling immediate fear for the blanket because it was specifically Boo who put it on her.