P4+IRobles

Begin Text:
-TOLERANCE-

The author, Harper Lee, of "To Kill a Mockingbird" chooses the theme of the book to be about tolerance. Tolerance is accepting someone for who they are and what they do and not just dealing with it. In the book, there are many characters that show this theme. There are also symbols that show this theme like the broken time watch and the mocking bird. Here are some characters that show the theme of tolerance.

The narrator of the book and main character is Scout Finch. The author probably chose her as the main character because of her child mind. Since the beginning of the book, Scout has been curious about Mr.Radley. She sees him as a monster because of what he did to his father with the scissors. Her prejudice changed at the end of the book when Boo saved Jem, Scout's big brother, from Mr. Ewell. She became tolerant of Boo Radley and became friends with him.

Mrs. Dubose is a mean old lady that lives near Scout's house. She's always been mean to Scout and Jem and yelled at them whenever they'd pass by. In the book, Jem got fed up with Mrs. Dubose and stepped on all her flowers. As a punishment, Jem had to read to Mrs. Dubose every day for a month. She then became tolerant of Jem before she died from cancer.

Atticus is the father of Scout and hero of the book. He shows tolerance to everyone the book. He is a lawyer that tried to defend a black man from being jailed. Atticus was even tolerant to the ones that accused the black man, especially Mr. Ewell. He spit at Atticus when he went to the black man's house drunk. Atticus just wiped the spit off his face with a napkin and left in his car.

Harper Lee chose this theme of tolerance for this reason. The reason is that everyone can be tolerant with everyone else if they chose to. When Mr. Ewell spit at Atticus's face, he didn't do anything back at him. Atticus tolerated Mr. Ewell because he sees everyone as not a bad person nor good person. This is why the author chose the theme of the book to be about tolerance.