Examples Of Moral Development In To Kill A Mockingbird

Have you ever experienced or seen someone grow so much from where they have started? Well in the book “To Kill A Mocking Bird” by Harper Lee, it tells the story of the Finch family, who are a bourgeois family, and inhabitants of Maycomb Alabama. One of the main characters named Scout shows a lot of not just physical development, but Moral Development as well. She went from following what people had told her, to admonishing her old ways and taking the lessons she received and applying them into her life. The moral development shown in this book connects to Lawrence Kohlberg’s “Stages Of Moral Development,” because it shows the difference between all the stages or moral development, and the work it takes to get to each level. This is what Scout

experiences when she grew from a short tempered and inconsiderate child, into a much more experienced, empathetic, young lady, by taking on her father’s values, and then forming her own.

In the beginning on the book, Scout is introduced as a pretty feisty little girl for just six years old. She likes to go against her brother and have her own side of the story, but also has a naive side to her.

Although she can be stubborn, she has a side of her where she doesn’t bicker or go against anyone. Instead, she goes with how everyone else wants things to be. She doesn’t argue with them, and does what they want her to do. One example of this was in chapter four, Dill and Jem think Scout is being scared not wanting to join in on their plans to torment Boo Radley. They think she turning more like a girl. More girly everyday. This suggests that the boys don’t want Scout to follow them in their schemes. After Scout hears this, she says “But I kept aloof from their more foolhardy schemes for a while, and on pain of being called a g-irl, I spent most of the remaining twilights that summer sitting with Miss Maudie Atkinson on her front porch.” (Lee 46) This quote shows how Scout is not contradicting Jem or Dill in what they said about her. She is going with the flow, and deciding to not make a big deal about it. She takes a break from hanging out with them, but instead, she is branching out and talking to new people. She goes over to Mrs. Maudie’s house, chats with her, and gets to know her better. Scout ends up

looking up to Mrs. Maudie because she acts like a female authority figure to Scout. She gives her points of views on things like Boo Radley and the trial. She also gives some advice to scout, like when she was clarifying what it meant when Atticus said “it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” This connects to Lawrence Kohlberg’s Moral Development document when he says “Stage three: We are “good” by doing what is approved by others. Approval can come from individuals or the expectations of peers, groups, or society. Meaning well counts, if the outcome isn’t what we intended.” (Kohlberg 5-7) This connects to Scout because she is doing what Jem and Dill would approve of her. She is doing what they want her to be doing, which is acting more like a girl. This means not going out and being wild, this means staying inside, and acting like a proper lady. In conclusion, these two quotes connect to how Scout listens to other people and doesn’t argue. She can be easy going and doesn’t do things that others would disapprove of.

Now, as Scout starts to mature, she learns to apply her father’s advice by climbing into Jem’s skin.

For example, in chapter three, Scout comes back from her first day of school, and she doesn’t like her teacher, Mrs. Caroline at all, and feels indignant towards her. Mrs. Caroline is the odd one out in the town. She doesn’t understand the town, and doesn’t fit in because she is new. She also limits Scout to the extent which she doesn’t like. She doesn’t let her read or write in cursive, because she claims that Scout is too “young.” She says that Atticus had taught Scout all wrong, and that she wouldn’t be able to ready anymore, ever. When Scout tells Atticus about her day at school, and begs for him not it send her back, Atticus says to her “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” (Lee 33) These quotes show that Atticus is saying how you should try to put yourself in the other person's place and understand why they act the way they do even if you don't agree with it. There might be something going on with the other person that you don’t know, which could cause them to act the way they do. Atticus is telling Scout to respect that person as best as she can, and before she gets upset with them, she should try to see the other side of the situation. A couple chapters later, Scout applies Atticus’s advice when Jem was acting moody and silent. She says “As Atticus had once

advised me to do, I tried to climb into Jem’s skin and walk around in it: if I had gone alone to the Radley place a two in the morning, my funeral would be held the next afternoon. So I left Jem alone and tried not to bother him.” (Lee 65) This connects to Atticus’s advice because Scout tries to imagine how Jem might be feeling. She’s trying to relate to how she would feel if she had done what Jem did, which was going back to the Radley place a two in the morning to find his pants. After she tries to relate, she realizes to step back and not bother him any further. This proves how Scout learns to apply her father’s advice into her life, because she started to see people differently. This shows that her father’s advice stuck into scouts head and she understood it. In all, these two quotes show how Scout start to develop a better understanding to other people’s side, by taking her father’s advice into account. This also shows how Scout starts to change because it makes her more independent.

Finally, Scout realizes what Atticus and Mrs. Maudie meant at the beginning of the book about how it is a sin to kill a mocking bird. In chapter ten, when Scout and Jem get their new air rifles, Atticus says that they can shoot all the blue jays they want, if they can hit them, but if they do, they should remember that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. Scout is bewildered by this because she doesn’t have any idea what the word sin meant, and had never heard her father say that word before. So she goes over to Mrs. Maudie’s house to talk and ask her about it, and she replies "Your father's right. Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." (Lee 103) This quote is showing how Mrs. Maudie agrees with Atticus and thinks that mockingbirds are innocent. She’s says that they only make music for people to enjoy, and that they don’t destroy anything, they just sing. This implies that they are harmless creatures, who we shouldn’t hurt. This analysis by Mrs. Maudie connects to the end of the book. When Atticus and Mr. Tate were taking about the death of Mr. Ewell, Atticus asks if Scout gets Mr. Tate’s reasoning. Then she replies “Well, it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?” (Lee 317) This quote connects to the quote in the beginning of the book because Scout starts to look back. She remembers what Mrs. Maudie said about how mockingbirds are innocent, and connects Boo Radley to a mockingbird. She sees how Boo Radley is similar because he is just as innocent as a mockingbird. He doesn’t disturb anything or anyone. He doesn’t play a big role in the town and is just there. Nobody really knows him as a person because he doesn’t come out of his house at all. Everybody gets timid when it comes to walking or just looking at his house. Scout realizes that if Boo was found under the light in the woods, that would have been like killing him, the innocent mockingbird. He is very quiet and wouldn’t want to draw attention to himself. In all, Scout learns how to take the mockingbird symbolism from her father and Mrs. Maudie, and connect it to real life experiences.

In conclusion, Scout transforms from an attentive child, to becoming a more independent young women by seeing and enunciating lessons she learned from authority figures, and bringing them into her own personal life. An important lesson to take away is how Scout showed that change takes thought, but if you think hard and try to apply them into your life, you can see their point of view.