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 * Ambiguity and Tolerance in To kill a Mockingbird**

Tolerance is defined as sympathy for beliefs/practicing that differ or conflicting with one’s own. Tolerance is important today because of all the people around you that you have to put up with. The author establishes the theme of tolerance in the book showing how the characters accept each other and their differences.

The author supports the theme of tolerance in some characters in different ways. Scout

Is an unreliable narrator because she is a young little girl and she doesn’t really know anybody but herself and her brother. She talks about Atticus and says he doesn’t know how to do anything. She later finds out that he was the best ‘shot’ in Maycomb. “Didn’t you know your daddy’s a-”. (pg.97)

Atticus, Jem and scout have to be tolerant with Mrs. Dubose. Every time they pass by her house she says mean things to them. She calls scout and ugly little girl and tells her to dress like a girl and not like a boy. “Don’t you say hey to me you ugly little girl! You say good afternoon, Mrs.Dubose!”(pg.99)Atticus tries to explain that Mrs. Dubose is sick and that is why she acts this way. She also tells Jem that his dad is a disgrace to their family. “Your father is no more than the niggers and trash he for”! (pg.102)

Almost everyone around town is calling Atticus a nigger lover. “He’s nothing but a nigger lover”, said Francis. (pg.83) It seems that Atticus doesn’t really mind all these thing to be said. When the kids tell him about the people that are saying this, he says that they are ignorant and they don’t see things the way they really are. The people in town are saying this because he is defending a black man against a white person in court. “Not only a Finch waiting on tables but one in the court house lawing for niggers” (pg.101)

Boo Radley is an ambiguous character in the story because no one really knows the character but Jem and Scout are always talking about him as if he were a freak or monster. Boo Radley shows tolerance because everyone in town seems to say only bad things about him and they all seem to be afraid of him. People in town say that he stabbed his father’s leg for no reason. That is why he only goes out at night; he doesn’t want anybody to see him. At the end of the story scout finds out that Boo is not freak, he is a good person and helps them while they are being attacked by Mr. Ewel.