“I wanted you to see something about her — I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do … [Mrs Dubose] was the bravest person I ever knew” quotes Atticus.
Jem and Scout also learn about the concept of prejudice in the novel. This is mainly to do with the racial prejudice that predominates in the book. There are many instances of this prejudice in the novel including:
. The Missionary tea ladies’ comments about Blacks. . . Mrs Dubose ‘s racist comments
But most importantly, this theme is shown in the case of Tom Robinson, where Tom is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, when it is obvious he did not because of his broken arm. But to the “white” judge, Tom is regarded as guilty no matter what his defence is. But in most white people’s eyes they regard black people as bad and wicked people.
“That all blacks lie… that all blacks are basically immoral beings” –Atticus
Also, in the scene in which Scout is listening to Reverend Sykes and Atticus’s conversation on “Maycomb’s usual disease” we find out that Atticus is teaching Scout indirectly as “he wanted me [Scout] to hear every word he said” and this is important for Scout’s learning process.
Misunderstanding is also a major theme that the children learn during the course of the novel. We see examples of this with Boo Radley, and also Tom Robinson, who are the “mockingbirds” of TKAM. Jem starts to understand this concept early in the book when he realises that Boo is actually giving them presents and stops playing games on him.
“If there’s just one kind of folks, why can’t they get along with each other? If they’re all alike, why don’t they go out of their way to despise each other? Scout, I think I’m beginning to understand why Boo Radley’s shut up in the house all the time…it’s because he wants to stay inside. –Jem
The misunderstanding between the Blacks and the Whites is also evident. Even though the Ewell’s are “White Trash” they are still regarded higher than a humble, church-going “nigger”. This is because of the assumption that:
“That all blacks lie… that all blacks are basically immoral beings” –Atticus
Therefore we can see that due to Atticus’s teaching technique of:
“A child learns more from personal experience than by simply being told something”
We can see that Jem and Scout have learnt much more than if they were told about it all. And we can see that by the end of the story they have matured about theirs views on people and their surroundings.
