Examples Of Conscience In To Kill A Mockingbird

“The one thing that doesn’t abide by the majority rule is a person’s conscience.”-Atticus

To Kill A Mockingbird is written by Harper Lee the novel focuses on the main character of Scout Finch and her journey to maturity through the notions of conscience, conviction and courage. The central themes explored throughout the novel are empathy, justice versus injustice and courage.

Scouts journey to maturity is based upon the many lessons that she learns throughout the novel. The notion of conscience is displayed through the themes empathy and the binary of justice versus injustice. Atticus Finch is Scout’s unconventional father, considered the moral backbone of Maycomb and is accepting of everyone. On Scout’s first day of school she was reprimanded

by her teacher for explaining why Walter Cunningham had no lunch. She vented her anger to Atticus and he teaches her the first lesson of empathy.“First of all, if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” Scout applies her father teachings to understand Boo Radley. When she meets Arthur in Jem’s room she notices how he doesn’t draw attention to himself, how timid he is. “I was beginning to learn his body English. His hand tightened on mine and he indicated he wanted to leave.” The crucial moment where Scout applies her empathy is when Arthur asks for her to take him home. Scout takes Boo in her arms-treats him like a gentleman and accompanies him on the way home. A metaphor used is when Scout stands on his front porch after bidding him goodnight and sees Maycomb through his eyes. The tableau of the events in Maycomb is used to show shifts in time. But the porch is also a metaphor as it is truly applying Atticus’ quote; standing and walking round in a persons shoes to understand their way of life.
The binary of justice and injustice is also another display of conscience. The motif of the mockingbird is continuously used throughout the novel. It is introduced when Jem requests a gun from Atticus, he teaches Jem an important lesson. “Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” As the novel progresses to Tom Robinson’s death Scout begins to use her moral conscience to understand the unjust nature of his death. The motif is also used when Scout reads Mr Underwoods article. Mr Underwood likened Tom’s death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children. Scout understood through his article Tom’s innocence and she silently agreed with this statement. “Senseless killing-Tom had been tried openly and convicted by twelve good men and true; my father had fought for him all the way.” (Scout.) This motif helped guide Scout through her journey to maturity as she understood that it was unjust to kill Tom. Bob Ewell’s death also helps Scout understand the motif as this is considered Divine Retribution. Mr Ewell paid for the sin of killing one of God’s innocents.

The notion of conviction is displayed throughout the themes of empathy and prejudice. These themes also allow Scout to mature at a rapid pace.
Throughout the conviction of Tom Robinson there are many depictions of empathy. Aside is used in the example of Dill’s heartache for Tom when he gets treated like nothing. He comes outside with Scout and in sobs discusses how the Ewell’s lawyer is degrading Tom. Dill’s sympathy towards Tom expresses the audiences views on the situation as well. “I know all that, Scout. It’s the way he said it made me sick, plain sick.” Scout then applies empathy to Mayella Ewell’s trial. As Atticus cross examines Mayella he creates a picture of her life for the jury-at the crux of his examination Mayella stops answering. It is a constant repetition of “No Answer.” The repetition is used to emphasise the questions of her home life. “It came to me that Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world.” Scout has used her fathers teachings to have empathy for Mayella implying her maturity.
Conviction is also present through prejudice.

At the beginning of the novel we see Scout, Jem and Dill believing the prejudice of those around them towards Boo Radley. They told stories, reenacted them and firmly believed that he was a ‘malevolent phantom.’ Scout is constantly reprimanded by her father for believing these stories. This is a learning curve for Scout. Arthur’s characterisation is understood through Scout. She no longer uses her strong conviction of him being a ‘malevolent phantom,’ liking him to more of a Guardian Angel. Scout also uses her understanding of prejudice to question her teacher Ms Gates. Ms Gates explains to her class the disgust of Hitler-that we shouldn’t hate someone because of their beliefs. However Ms Gates contradicts herself when she explains her prejudice towards negroes. Scout immediately recognises this contradiction: “Jem how can you hate Hitler so bad an’ then turn around and be ugly about folks at home?” This is a depiction of Scout’s characterisation when she truly sees through things that her own teacher

cannot.

Courage is another theme explored throughout To Kill A Mockingbird.

An example of courage is Mrs Dubose’s battle against her morphine addiction. Her characterisation is evident through Scout and Mrs Dubose’s encounters. Scout’s immediate belief is that Mrs Dubose is just an irate, angry woman. However as the situation occurs they visit her house and Jem reads to her everyday. They notice Mrs Dubose’s alarm clock and her frothing at the mouth however never seem to think anymore of it. Upon Mrs Dubose’s death they realise that she suffered from a morphine addiction. This is true courage as Mrs Dubose wished to die without an addiction to anything. She faced everyday of her life with struggle, agony and pain. Scout also learns the lessons of courage through her father. Atticus would not allow his children to acquire guns and looked down upon them. When asked about it Atticus teaches Scout a lesson she carries throughout her entire life. “I wanted you to see something about her-I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in is hand.” Atticus also shows exemplary courage. Atticus has gone against the beliefs of his town to defend Tom Robinson. He was ostracised and looked down upon, Scout could not understand her fathers choice. Atticus discusses his reason with her “If I didn’t I couldn’t hold my head up in town.” We can understand that Atticus is character of moral justice. He has enough courage to face the ostracism in

order to the moral thing. It takes courage to stand up to your enemies but it takes true courage to stand up to your friends. This is one of the many lessons Scout learns on her journey to maturity. In To Kill A Mockingbird the theme courage is not explored through guns and fighting but through someones conscience and conviction; it is going against the socially accepted regime and doing what is morally correct. As part of Scouts journey to maturity she learns that conscience and justice should be followed and courage is to take a stand up for the moral thing-even if it puts you in danger or makes you unpopular.

Through empathy, prejudice, courage and the binary of justice versus injustice Scouts maturity is reached well beyond her years. Her conscience, courage and conviction all contribute to loss of innocence. Overall we can see that the overarching theme of Scout’s and Jem’s maturity is due to the lessons they learn through the themes surrounding their life. Scout and em have lost their innocence through horrific small town natures of prejudice, racism, empathy, conscience, conviction courage and justice.