Education in To Kill a Mockingbird

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A well-developed theme in To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is education and its importance to aging. Scout learns self-control, courage, and standing up for what is right. Scout Finch’s education process begins outside of the classroom with Atticus, her father, as the teacher. The Finch family lives in Maycomb County, Alabama, during the 1930s, where prejudice and inequality of races is widely accepted and practiced. Atticus stands alone, in defense, when a black man is taken to trial for the rape of a white woman. Scout learns, through her father, many valuable lessons that influence her actions daily. One of Scout’s first lessons is the ability to restrain. Scout is constantly getting into fights and “rubbing people’s faces in the dirt.” Cecil Jacobs catches her in the schoolyard and begins to make fun of her father and his help to a black man in court. Scout beats him up and then later tells Atticus what happened. Her father tells her, “You just hold your head high and keep your fists down” (76). Atticus introduces the first idea of becoming a more civilized lady even i...

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