Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird

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What is the best way to become a good person? To become a good person, one must experience life lessons, rather than being taught them, to know how to apply them in real life. In “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, the main characters Scout, and Jem, experienced life lessons throughout the novel, which contributed to them becoming good people.Throughout the story the children experienced life lessons from the tale of Boo Radley, their father Atticus Finch, and the case of Tom Robinson as they teach about false judgement due to rumors, what true bravery is, and how the world is unfair. In this case, Jem and Scout learned about false judgement due to rumors by the tale of Boo Radley. The tale of Boo Radley was that of a teenager who was locked up by his father in their house after some mischief in his teen years. Rumors started to flood around about why no one has seen Boo Radley for a long time and that he was a crazy and scary man who does not care for anybody. The kids follow the assumption of Boo Radley being a menacing crazy monster, but this opinion was soon overtaken when the children find little gifts in a tree hole in a tree front of the Radley house, “In its knot-hole rested a ball of gray twine.”( Lee, 78 ), “I pulled out two small images carved in soap. One was the figure of a boy, the other wore a crude dress [Scout].”( Lee, 81), “ ‘These are us,’ [Jem] said.” (Lee, 81). Jem and Scout soon figured out that it was Boo Radley who put the little gifts there for the children to find, and this stifled their opinion on Boo Radley. If Boo Radley was a mean person, he would not have given the children little presents to make them happy. Jem and Scout recognize this miscarriage of character by Boo Radley and in turn made th... ... middle of paper ... ...tions and become a good person. Since they experienced this lesson rather than being told it, the kids have thoroughly and completely learned it and will apply this lesson in the future contributing them to be good people. In conclusion, in the journey for Scout and Jem to become good people, the children have experienced important life lessons. The kids learned not judge a person from rumors heard with the help of Boo Radley. The also learned what true bravery is since it was demonstrated by Mrs. Dubose and Atticus Finch. The last lesson they learned was that the world is unfair by the Tom Robinson case. When you experience life lessons rather than being taught them, you learn them more effectively and understand how apply the lessons in real life to become a good person. Works Cited Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1960. Print.

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