Destiny Eshe’ Stallworth
September 26th, 2014
TKAM Essay
Eighth Grade Sophia
Mrs. Scullin Discuss Atticus’s parenting style. What is his relationship to his children like? How does he seek to instill conscience in them? To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, is the coming­of­age novel of a young Southern girl named Jean­Louise “Scout” Finch during the controversial yet fictitious
Robinson vs.Ewell trial. The story is set in the early 1930s in Maycomb County, Alabama, with her older brother
Jeremy “Jem” Finch and widowed father, Atticus. Atticus’ parenting style is quite unique because he treats his children like adults. He instills conscience in them by teaching them to
“climb into other people’s skin and walk around in
Scout asks:
‘If you shouldn’t be defendin’ him, then why are you doing it?’
‘For a number of reasons, said Atticus. ‘The main one is, if I didn’t I couldn’t hold my head up in town. I couldn’t represent the county in the legislature. I couldn’t even tell you or Jem to do something again’ (76). Atticus explains to Scout that if he does not defend Tom to the best of his ability he would be betraying his conscious and could no longer consider himself as a decent and upstanding man. Later in Part 1, Atticus talks with Scout again about the case, saying that he understands how difficult it must be for her and Jem to put up with what others say about Atticus and the case.
Atticus says:
‘­well, all I can say is, when you and Jem are grown, maybe you’ll look back on this with some compassion and some feeling that I didn’t let you down. This case, the Tom Robinson case, is something that goes to the essence of a man’s conscience – Scout, I couldn’t go to church and worship God if I didn’t try to help that man’(104).
Again, Scout shows her confusion over whether he is doing the right thing by telling Atticus that he must be wrong in defending Tom Robinson since everyone else thinks he is. Atticus explains:
‘They’re certainly entitled to think that, and they’re entitled to full respect for their opinions...but before I can live with other folks, I’ve got