Atticus' Role-Model Parenting in To Kill A Mockingbird
The job of a parent is to act as a moral guide for their child or children. By exposing them at a young age to moral lessons and ideas, they will grow up to make decisions aligned with those morals. Though some children veer from that moral path, the best a parent can do is give their child advice and freedom so he or she can make mistakes that mold their personality but still become a decent person in the long run.
In To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus utilized this parenting technique, and it worked marvelously. His children, Jem and Scout, by the end of the novel’s journey realized the faults of their town and how to have compassion and empathy for others. Atticus’ parenting was crucial to the story. They were able to understand such complexities because Atticus introduced them to each moral lesson, and provided them the freedom to let them see his words come to life in their own experiences.
Jem certainly matured a lot in the book, if “maturing” meant becoming a prick. The only thing growing up did for Jem was allowing himself to inflate his own ego since people considered him a “grownup”. The large gate to Grownup Land is not the same gate as Maturity Land. Jem’s true signs of maturity appeared when he starting thinking. Thinking about the right decision over something he would have done previously and about why things were the way they were in town and how that differed from Atticus’ teachings.
Atticus was the spark to all of Jem’s thoughts and questions. Because Atticus was the one who went against the town, and he was also the one to guide them morally away from Maycomb’s disease. But he never said anyone in Maycomb was bad, besides the Ewells. He gave the freedom to his kids to decide that, which is why Jem’s discovery after the trial that not everyone in Maycomb was good became so influential to his worldview.
As for Scout, her maturation at the end of the novel was also brought on by Atticus. The whole book, Scout was just challenging people who saw the world different from her. She couldn’t comprehend an alien worldview, which explains her fascination with Boo Radley.
Knowing this flaw of Scout’s, Atticus taught her about empathy. The “walking around in someone else’s shoes” concept did not hit her until her experience at the end of the book, when she was standing on Boo Radley’s porch, literally seeing the world as he saw it. In this example as well, Atticus gave and enforced a moral lesson overtime; and, instead of disciplining his children to follow it, he gave them enough freedom to experience it themselves, fueling a greater impact.
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Something important that Atticus did as well was to treat his kids as adults. As previously mentioned with Jem, maturity and age are separate developments. By treating his children as adults, Atticus trusted them with enough freedom to see his lessons in the real world. Many parents feel a divide between them and their child when the teenage years come, and that may be because the parent just can’t let go of their child as a child. On the other hand, Jem and Scout’s relationship with Atticus never had that struggle, because Atticus didn’t have to change his attitude towards his children as they matured since he wanted them to mature.
The reason To Kill A Mockingbird is such an inspiring novel is because of Atticus. He was the backbone to the entire development due to his morals and how he shared them. It is important for readers to see what exceptional parenting looks like. Everyone could take a lesson from Atticus, and everyone needs the freedom to put that lesson to use.
