Ms. Short
American Lit.
10 June 2013
In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird Atticus Finch can be seen as a good father for the different lessons he teaches his children. Atticus teaches his children to keep an open mind, he makes sure that his children are informed on what is going on in Maycomb county, he also teaches the importance of not being prejudiced towards anybody, and Atticus gives his children respect, which is rare for parents during the 1930s.
One of the main reasons that Atticus can be seen as a good father is that he teaches Jem and Scout to keep an open mind about people and not to judge them solely on what they say or do at a certain time. Atticus is always reminding his children that they do not really know somebody until they walk around in their skin and see what it is like to live their life. Atticus plays out his advice numerous times throughout the novel; when Jem’s punishment after he destroyed Mrs. Dubose’s flowers was to read to her Jem would come home and complain about how bitter she is towards him for defending Tom Robinson and feels that those comments from her are reason enough to hate her. Again Atticus reminds him that he has no idea what Mrs. Dubose is going through as she attempts to rid herself from her morphine addiction, (add quote)
Atticus continuously tries to make sure that Jem and Scout are informed on what is going on in Maycomb and understand what it all means. Atticus tries to explain what they should expect when they go back to school during the Robinson trial (ad in