Harper Lees To Kill a Mockingbird :: To Kill a Mockingbird Essays

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird In Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird, there were many lessons that were taught. Atticus was a lawyer who taught his son Jem and daughter Scout many different values. Atticus felt that one of the most important values was to put yourself in someone else's shoes before you judge them. He also taught them to respect others. Scout was a wild girl and always got into fights with other guys; Atticus showed her that fighting doesn't solve anything. Atticus showed the kids that you should not judge other people. You don't know how their life is unless you are walking around in their shoes. You have no clue on how they feel about things and what they see. They may have problems that you don't know about and they don't want you to see. They may act different because of the way they were brought up. You can never tell unless you see what they see. Atticus also felt that you should always respect others. He felt that you should always try to please other people even if it means holding in your opinion sometimes. Mrs. Dubose was a character in the novel who was very disrespectful to the rich. Atticus still made them be kind to her. Jem got mad one day and cut some of her bushes down. As a punishment Atticus made him read to Mrs. Dubose. Later, when they learned she had died, Atticus said: "...She had her own views about things, a lot different from mine, maybe...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 you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won...she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew." They learned that they shouldn't act mean-spirited just because of their feelings about someone. They might act out of anger and not really understand the person at all. In the beginning of the book, Scout had a bad temper. She got into a lot of fights over little things. Atticus would get very angry with her because he felt that fighting was very wrong. He thought that it didn't prove anything.