Atticus Finch Influence On To Kill A Mockingbird

There is a point where children start to question the society they grow up in. In Harper Lee's coming of age novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the children seem more knowledgeable than many adults on how society should work. Scout and Jem, the children of Atticus Finch, are often influenced by many of the people in Maycomb. Almost everyone in maycomb has their own views and almost all of these people have prejudice perspectives. There are only a few who don't believe that one person is better based on race or age. Scout and Jem are strongly influenced by all of these people as well as all of their morals no matter if they are good or bad. Throughout this influential novel Harper Lee uses the themes of prejudice and morals to depict the racist and bizzare ways of the South, and to show what was thought to be right and wrong. Prejudice is a preconceived opinion that isn't based on reason or intelligence, but biased feelings. Many people in Maycomb believe they are better than the others because they have better things or they have a more prestigious family history, much like Scout and Jems aunt, Alexandra. Alexandra believes that her niece and nephew should not play with people who are not in the same social class because of their family. When Scout asks if she can invite Walter Cunningham, a poor farmer boy, over to play, Alexandra denies her stating, ¨I'll tell you why,...Because---he---is----trash, that's why Szott 2 you can't play with him. I´ll not have you around him, picking up his habits and learning lord knows what.¨(Lee 256). This statement shows that Aunt Alexandra is using prejudice because she is indirectly telling scout she can't play with him because his family isn't as rich or as proper. Even the young children of Maycomb have their own prejudices. Although, they have never seen Boo in person, Scout, Jem, and Dill are drawing conclusions as if they already know him, ¨Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: Boo was about six and a half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained…. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had left were yellow and rotten ; his eyes popped , and he drooled most of the time.¨(Lee 14) This shows prejudice …show more content…
Atticus Finch is a great example of someone who has good morals and someone who wants to spread them to others. Atticus displays the theme of personal morality in how he raises his children, he teaches them to not imitate the actions and attitudes of the others in Maycomb. He believes that he should raise intelligent children who are able to make their own decisions about what they believe is important to them.¨I hope and pray i can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness, and most of all without catching Maycomb's usual disease....I just hope that jem and Scout come to me for their answers instead of listening to the town¨(Lee 100-101) By statement Atticus means that he doesn't want his children to conform to the usual attitudes of prejudice and racism in Maycomb, and he fears that they will if they don't come to him for answers. Jem is the character in this novel that shows the most moral development. As To Kill A Mockingbird progresses, Jem develops into a