The Importance Of Atticus Finch In Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird

Each person is occupied with a unique set of ethics as a result of their environment. However, whether or not one abides by these ethics is a separate issue. Although individuals choose to believe in concepts such as karma to reaffirm these actions and keep society in line with morals, what goes around does not always come around. In reality, good deeds don't always pay off and there is not always retribution for the bad actions. In fact, it's often easier to do the wrong thing and more difficult to do what is right, hence the saying “no good deed goes unpunished”. A prominent example of this is Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus is known for his stiff morals and his ability to obey them. While Atticus suffers going

As kids begin to grow up, they observe their surroundings and follow by example more than advice. At the start of To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem thought bravery was going up to Boo Radley house and touching the porch since Dill dared him to. Jem says, "In all his life, Jem had never declined a dare" (Lee, 11). Later one, Jem starts to realize that bravery is more complex than he thinks. He looks up to his father Atticus since he explains that bravery is when one stands up for what one believes is right and "simply because [you] were licked a hundred years before [you] started is no reason for [you] not to try to win" (Lee, 69). As Jems start to realize that, he starts applying it to his life. For instance, he decides to disobey his father when he told him to go home after the lynch mob confront Atticus. Philippe Rochat in 2011, wrote an article called "Possession and Morality in Early Development." in New Directions for Child & Adolescent Development, which explains that children who grow up in a household of rights examples, make a significant impact on children's development of ethical values. Rochat declares that “...contingent with the development of theories of mental capacity, children develop the sense of possession as ethical property. At this final level, children experience possession with the feeling of what is right and what is wrong. They begin to take an explicit ethical stance toward who should own what and why” (Rochat). Rochat expresses that children will begin to understand the difference between fair and erroneous as they get older. It is not expected for young adolescent kids to know what is always right but is important that they learn from their mistakes. At first, Scout was perfect about the Robinson trial, but since her father was his lawyer, she began to see his moral values which affected Scout. For instance,