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 nature of that particular line stand out as another moral teaching. The line was a very deliberate choice made by the author; it’s important and significant because it was used to call attention to how the trial was viewed by the general public, pointing out that the people of the town had lost their innocence, and let a good man die just because they didn 't have the gumption to stand up for what they knew was right. The line is used to unveil the true lesson behind the trial to the reader: men who stand by and do nothing while injustice occurs are just as bad as those committing the injustice. Atticus Finch is a very literal character throughout the story. Many of his words have metaphorical meanings, but it is always always directed towards the reader by the author, not towards other characters. A good example of this would be Atticus telling his children that it 's a “sin to kill mockingbird[s]”(Lee 90). To the reader, it 's fairly obvious that mockingbirds represent the innocent, and that Atticus is saying it 's a horrible deed to harm someone or something innocent. To the characters in the book, Atticus included, it seems like a father just laying down a rule for his kids. Later in the book, Scout (Atticus’ daughter, as well as the narrator), realised the meaning behind what Atticus said. This is one example of many where Atticus has said something literal to the characters that has had special significance to the reader. The little southern town that the book takes place in is a quiet and calm place, but as the children discover, the town has issues that were rampant throughout the United States during the 30’s. There is still a deep-seeded distaste for African Americans as a whole, and the wounds of the great American depression were still healing. Through the eyes of the children, the town has a friendly face until the later part of the book, when the older sibling of the narrator began to see examples of racism and cruelty in the town. The narrator watches as her older brother Jem grows up and loses bits of his innocence until he’s able to realise what 's going on around him. Towards the midpoint of the book, most adults stop referring to Jem as a child. Atticus …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