Atticus Finch Parenting Quotes

Parenting can be one of the most demanding jobs that a father or mother engage in. In

Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird, there are various characters who appear as

parental figures for their children. Atticus Finch is one of the most influential figures in

the book owing the fact that he teaches his children Scout and Jem several life lessons.

He talks to them about not judging individuals by their or the community’s assumptions,

to treat everyone equally regardless of one’s race and not showing aggression towards

those who have not caused any harm involving them. Briefly, Atticus tries to open his

children’s eyes by teaching them that everyone should be treated equally no matter how

different they are and this will change the

way society sees people.

Throughout the novel, one of Atticus Finch’s most significant life lesson is not to

judge individuals by their or the community’s beliefs. When Walter Cunningham joins

the Finch family for dinner, he pours syrup on his meal and Scout mocks him which

leads Atticus to react violently to her treatment of Walter by standing up for him. During

that scene, Atticus’ reaction of Scout’s negativity towards Walter was a way to teach her

that she should not judge others from what she has heard about them although Walter

is part of the Cunningham family and the Cunningham’s are known in Maycomb as

being unfortunate. This explains that Atticus is trying to teach his daughter that she

should treat Walter like everyone else even though he is different from other people

financially for the purpose of changing the way she sees him. Another example, where

this lesson is taught, is when Jem disrespects Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose by ripping

up her precious flowers, although she made a repugnant remark on his father, Atticus

obligates him to spend time reading to her after school and he becomes conscious of

the fact that she is struggling with a drug addiction to morphine. By forcing him to spend

time with her, Atticus was trying to teach his son that his assumptions of her being an

irritable aged women for no specific reason are not necessarily accurate because she

suffers from this habit which causes her to act horrendously. This explains that his

father is trying to teach him that he should not treat her the way he did in view of the fact

that she was acting in a different way because he had no idea what she was going

through not to mention that if he treated her fairly, Jem’s perspective of Mrs. Dubose

would have changed. In the following scene, when Scout, Jem and Dill were harassing

Boo Radley, Atticus catches them and orders them to stop harassing him by saying:

‘’What Mr. Radley did was his own business.’’(Lee, 65). By ending their frivolous game,

Atticus was trying to teach the children that they should not be convinced by the

community’s beliefs about him for the reason that, later on, he saves them from Bob
Ewell. This scene explains that their father is in fact teaching them to treat him equally

even if he doesn’t want people to know about his whereabouts and activities in a town

where people knows everyone else’s business and by treating him just like everyone

else will change the way people see him as a person. Scout and Jem learn that judging

someone from their own assumptions will never change the way they see people and

that has both similarities and differences to the upcoming lesson.

Secondly, Atticus Finch teaches a lesson of great significance about racial

equality by treating everyone equal regardless of one’s race.

‘’You aren’t a nigger-lover,

then, are you? I certainly am. I do my best to love everybody…’’ (Lee, 144). In this

quote, Atticus justifies to Scout that he treats everyone equally regardless of the race of

the person. This explains that Scout’s father is trying to teach her that if she doesn’t

treat everyone equally, she will never change the way society sees those who are

considered different. ‘’You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some

Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women--- black or

white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men.

There is not a person in this courtroom who has never told a lie, who has never done an

immoral thing, and there is no man living who has never looked upon a woman without

desire.’’ (Lee, 273). Atticus tries to teach that people should be treated equally

regardless of the race because judged as individuals rather than by their race. This

clarifies that he is teaching that an individual should be treated equally no matter how

different he is and if people treated everyone with fairness, the aspect of the society will

be willing to

change.