Jem Finch Morals

If you were born and raised in the United States, there 's a pretty fair chance that you’ve read or at least heard of the incredibly famous novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. The book is meticulously crafted from beginning to end, every sentence being very deliberate. This makes one particular line stand out quite a bit. During the final chapters of the book, the character Atticus Finch makes a comment about his son Jem Finch’s reaction to an act of harsh racism in his small town. In the book, an African American man named Tom Robinson is falsely convicted of raping a white woman. Jem cries over the case, and Atticus responds to his son’s distress by saying “it seems only children weep.” Obviously, this isn 't a perfect and literal truth. Atticus is a recurring character in the book who makes himself out to be a moral authority, using metaphors to lay down morality. This makes the philosophical …show more content…
This was done with other moral teachings in the story, specifically the one about killing mockingbirds. The author has Miss Maudie explain to the children the exact significance of the line “it 's a sin to kill a mockingbird”(Lee 90), and the quote is also brought up later in the book. The main point of the trial is pointed out and explained later as well, though it’s done in a way that’s a little less on-the-nose than a direct explanation. Jem asks his father how the people of the county could do such a thing, and Atticus bluntly says that “they 've done it before and they 'll do it again”(Lee 213), showing clear distaste in his tone. Moral teachings are pointed out multiple times in the story, and explained directly after the teaching had taken place. This teaching is no exception, and Atticus’s line “only children weep”(Lee 213) is akin to Miss Maudie’s explanation of the mockingbird