The Relationship between Atticus and Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird

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'To Kill a Mockingbird' is a novel that was written in the 1960s, but Harper Lee decided to set the novel in the Depression era of the 1930s in a small town in Alabama. Lee provided her readers with a historical background for the affairs of that time and in doing so she exposed the deeply entrenched history of the civil rights in South America. Like the main characters in this novel, Lee grew up in Alabama; this made it easier for her to relate to the characters in the novel as she would have understood what they would have experienced during the period when racism, discrimination and inequality was on the increase within the American society.
Even though, this novel was set in the depression era, Scout goes through times in her life when she learns moral lessons through the education taught by Atticus, this results in empathy being shown and Scout also learns to fight with her head rather than her fist. However, as she faces hardship and goes through difficult times, seeing as her father is defending Tom Robinson (who is a black man accused of raping Mayella Ewell), she is forced to grow up and enter the adult world. As this is the case, Scout finds herself helping Atticus and this increases the relationship between father and daughter since Scout sees her father as a good role model. Even though Atticus isn’t seen as an ordinary father he is still seen as role model by his children, this implies that he must have done something right to make them approve of him. In comparison to Mr Ewell, Atticus is seen as a role model as he doesn’t smoke or drink. These bad habits that Atticus has refrained from have had an impact on the way his children have been brought up. Unlike Bob, Atticus cares for his children and tries to help the...

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...m to their senses...That proves something - that a gang of wild animals can be stopped, simply because they're still human. Hmp, maybe we need a police force of children." (Page 173) As Scout saved her father from the mobs, the relationship between both characters increases, but the relationship is also shown as being complicated as Scout remembered a lesson that her father taught her in the weirdest of situations.
In essence, in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ the relationship between Scout and Atticus is presented with many flaws as it is complicated yet understandable. The relationship between both characters is presented like this because of the job that Atticus has, the amount of maturity and knowledge that Scout has acquired and the things that Scout has experienced throughout her childhood. All this has had an impact on the relationship between father and daughter.

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