Firstly, Atticus teaches his children about courage, and he is an example of this through his constant actions. When Atticus was assigned Tom Robinson's case he was put right on the …show more content…
This also included teaching the children about seeing beyond the obvious with everyone and treating them honestly, whether they like them of not. This was done when Atticus made Jem read to Mrs. Dubose because he ruined her flowers; disrespecting Mrs. DeBose. From this Jem learned to respect the old woman and understand that for all her faults that she also has strengths. When Mrs. Dubose died, Jem wished he had not known her because her death was more painful, as he had finally learned to truly see her for who she is. Later on, he is "fingering the wide petals" of a flower from Mrs. Dubose's garden, this indicates a level of respect he certainly didn't have for her before. The use of symbolism throughout TKAM represents the children growing up, maturing and learning respect throughout the length of the book. In the beginning the Mrs. DeBose is a grumpy old lady who they do not get along with, then Jem is forced to spend time with her and get to know her, slowly begging to like her and then realize she isn’t so terrible. By the time when Mrs. DeBose passed away Jem’s respect towards her was very high and he was genuinely upset. The technique of symbolism was used well here to represent the idea of ‘to kill a mockingbird’ which is representing the idea of killing innocence. Boo was represented as a mockingbird – showing innocence, as Boo was innocent he was just extremely