Ethical Issues In To Kill A Mockingbird

728 Words2 Pages

When you make a decision, you are likely to use a code of right or wrong that you have been taught. These are commonly referred to as ethics and morals. Ethics and morals may be used interchangeably but that does not mean that they are the same thing. Ethics are rules of conduct given by a certain society and morals are principles and habits that come from within. Ethics and morals both discuss right and wrong but they differ in the "grey area", how people feel them in their lives and, their abilities to change over time.
One area of difference between ethics and morals are how people feel them in their lives and where they come from. The pressures of each come from very different places. Morals are a set of rules that the individual has inside …show more content…

This “grey area” is thought to be the moral dilemma caused by someone who’s morals and ethics clash. The difference between ethics and morals in this area is how society views a person with each. A person who has morals but not ethics may still be viewed as a good person but probably wouldn’t fit wholly into society. However, a person with ethics and not morals may or may not be a good person but probably is viewed as honest and clean-cut. Think of someone like Mother Teresa versus someone like Atticus Finch, a character from the 1960s novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Mother Teresa, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient and Catholic nun, and Atticus Finch, a straight-laced lawyer who attempts to stop an innocent black man from being hung during the turbulent 1960s. Both are indisputably good people but in completely different ways. Mother Teresa follows her morals in an attempt to make the world a better place. Whereas Atticus Finch faces opposition when he tries to do his job to the best of his ability like he knows he must ethically do so. A person’s morals and ehtics change the way the world views them. Their code of conduct guides them through the world, however it has the ability to …show more content…

Ethics is very consistent within a time period but may change drastically between them. Morals, however, is usually very consistent across a person’s whole life. For example, being a doctor now and a doctor in the 18th century would be very different ethically. But a person at the age of 19 and the age of 89 are probably are very similar morally because typically those with strong morals do not let them bend easily. Ethics fit more into cultural normalities than morals do. For instance, if a business owner refused to serve a black customer in the 50’s it would not be unethical. Today, however, it would be extremely unethical. Morals do not change as rapidly. This has to do with the fact that morals are internal and therefore more concrete within a

Open Document