Education in to Kill a Mockingbird

While I was reading the books assigned for summer reading, I had many opinions on characters, and a few stood out to me. In To Kill A Mockingbird, my favorite character would have to be Atticus Finch. Atticus is a working father who tries his best to be a role model for both Jean Louise “Scout” and for Jeremy “Jem”. Atticus has a different approach to parenting than most adults. He lets both his children call him Atticus, and instead of deflecting most of Scout’s questions because she’s “too young”, he answers them truthfully.

When he is talking to his kids he doesn’t tell them how to act, but more of a reason as to why they should act this way. Atticus doesn’t demand respect from his kids, he just behaves in a way that makes them look up to him with respect.

He treats Jem and Scout with maturity but realizes that they both still are kids and can make mistakes. I think even without a wife, Atticus is doing a magnificent job of raising them to be outstanding individuals. As I read I could see that Atticus truly loved his kids. Atticus Finch is also an attorney who treats each of his clients equally. He is given the task of defending Tom Robinson, a black field worker who is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman. Atticus is aware that his family will get a lot of unwanted attention for taking this case, and defending the “bad guy” but he doesn’t care. Atticus knows that he needs to defend Tom’s innocence, he can’t just step back and let injustice take place. Atticus could even use the excuse that he had to do it, because the Judge appointed him he had no choice, but he doesn’t. He aimed to defend Tom as best he could. Atticus was one of the few that believed in racial equality back then, and I thought it was a commendable quality.

Even when he was being ridiculed for his views, or when his children were brought into the mix, he never once wavered or backed down. I knew that he did his best defending Tom Robinson even when the verdict was going to be inevitable either way. Atticus Finch is an exemplary father, a respectable attorney, and an overall morally good person. He was definitely my favorite character in To Kill a Mockingbird. In A Tree Grows In Brooklyn my favorite character was definitely Sissy. She certainly had a few flaws, but if you look past them you’ll see a woman who is full of compassion. Sissy was the first out of four daughters. She was only three months old when her parents moved to America. Because Sissy’s mother Mary did not understand that free education was available to all, Sissy did not attend school, so she couldn’t read or write. Sissy was a very beautiful woman and sometimes used that to her advantage.

I believe that she had a lot of love to go around, maybe even too much. While people (including her family) liked that she was always willing to help out, they were very judgemental about her many relationships with different men. Sissy was married to three different men (her first marriage being at the age of 14), had multiple lovers in between, and was technically married to two men at the same time, which is frowned upon in most places. All Sissy wanted to do was to have a child and become a mother. She left each of her husbands when they could not provide her with a child, and had 10 miscarriages before she becomes a mother. While the method is wrong, I admire her persistence in wanting to be a mother, and in the end she achieves her goal. She ends up with two children (one adopted, and one her own) and is living happily with her third husband.

Even before Sissy has children she had many motherly qualities. She loved Francie and Neeley and always brought them little treats when she came to visit them. Sissy was very kind. When Francie had an accident in school because she wasn’t allowed to go to the bathroom, Sissy heard and went to talk to her teacher about how each student should be treated equally. Sissy is not a bad person at heart, she just has different methods for getting her way. She is a good listener, and helps console each of her sisters husbands when they’re going through rough times. I admire her attitude and lively spirit. Whenever I saw Sissy in a chapter I knew it would be an entertaining one. I enjoyed reading about her many adventures, which is why Sissy was my favorite character in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

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