The Importance Of Conscience In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

“The one thing that doesn’t abide to majority rule is a person’s conscience.” (Lee 140). A person’s conscience is defined by Webster’s online dictionary as “ the sense or consciousness of the moral goodness or blameworthiness of one's own conduct, intentions, or character together with a feeling of obligation to do right or be good ”. The preceding quote displays the importance of following self-set morals, it is one of many lessons in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. This lesson, however, is taught by the lawyer and father of two children, Atticus. Lee writes a story following his two children, Jem and Scout, through their experiences with life, people, and learning about themselves. The novel is set during the years of the Great Depression, 1933-1935, in a small town titled Maycomb, Alabama, where racism was especially prevalent. In the novel, the two children learn important lessons. Scout slowly learns to consider and understand somebody else’s perspective. At this point, she is six years old, at the age of first attending school. Along with her tomboy tendencies, she is also not the best at thinking before acting. On the first day of school, she makes a fair amount of mistakes and does not get along the best with her teacher. While attempting to stick up for a fellow classmate, Scout comes across the wrong way to her teacher, resulting in punishment. After Scout proclaims she will not be attending school any longer, Atticus tells her, "...if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better …show more content…
First, they experience what real courage is. After Jem makes a mistake, he must make it to an old neighborhood lady, Mrs. Dubose. Each day Jem went to read to her, Scout had followed him, and they noticed that they were sent home a little later every day. After he had completed his punishment, he and Scout were informed of Mrs. Dubose’s death by their father, who tells