In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee describes the childhood of Scout Finch and growing up in a small southern town. Throughout the story, Scout’s father, Atticus Finch, was characterized as a model parent through many scenes and stories. Providing contrast, Bob Ewell, the father of the poorest white family in Maycomb, was shown as a counterexample to the qualities of a good father. To Kill a Mockingbird explores the theme of being an objective, just, and loving father through the character of Atticus. He taught his children many life lessons that helped them grow throughout the story and served as a role model to them. Bob Ewell, by contrast, was a lazy alcoholic, who neglected his eight children and often abused his eldest daughter, Mayella.
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In the beginning of the story when Scout first started school, Atticus told 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.” (30) This helped the kids see the world from other people’s perspectives, and taught them an important lesson of understanding other people’s situations, and motives for their actions. Atticus taught Scout and Jem courage through the death of Mrs. Dubose, an old morphine addict who finally rid herself of her addiction before she died. Atticus told Jem that because Mrs. Dubose tried to die free of her addiction, she was “the bravest person [he] knew.” (112) He said, “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see through it no matter what.” (112) Jem wound up reading to Mrs. Dubose weekly as a punishment, and when she died Atticus told him that he would’ve had Jem do it anyway, saying “Most of the time you were reading to her I doubt if she heard a word you said. Her whole mind and body were concentrated on that alarm clock… It may have been some distraction” He made everything that happened in the kids lives into a lesson for them, and taught them courage and
In the beginning of the story when Scout first started school, Atticus told 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.” (30) This helped the kids see the world from other people’s perspectives, and taught them an important lesson of understanding other people’s situations, and motives for their actions. Atticus taught Scout and Jem courage through the death of Mrs. Dubose, an old morphine addict who finally rid herself of her addiction before she died. Atticus told Jem that because Mrs. Dubose tried to die free of her addiction, she was “the bravest person [he] knew.” (112) He said, “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see through it no matter what.” (112) Jem wound up reading to Mrs. Dubose weekly as a punishment, and when she died Atticus told him that he would’ve had Jem do it anyway, saying “Most of the time you were reading to her I doubt if she heard a word you said. Her whole mind and body were concentrated on that alarm clock… It may have been some distraction” He made everything that happened in the kids lives into a lesson for them, and taught them courage and