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Claire Lander

Ms. Woelke

Pre-AP English 9B

24 March 2019

Growth Through Controversy

Harper Lee’s world famous novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” has been teaching children

life lessons for decades, either in school, or in the comfort of their own home. Released in the

year 1960 it was an automatic hit across the globe, but with fame comes controversy. Schools

throughout the United States have been discussing the more “uncomfortable” aspects of the

novel. The language use, racism, and rape have been the most concerning when teaching to

students. Although, this novel was made to put readers in an uncomfortable position. When

submerged into uncomfortable situations people grow, this is how students will learn from the

book. To Kill a Mockingbird plays a high role in the curriculum of schools because it not only

has children think of understanding themselves and the others surrounding them, but it also puts

them out of their comfort zone, helping students grow.

“To Kill a Mockingbird” not only is an entertaining read, the novel also withholds moral

lessons, one in which students learn to be more aware of themselves and the people around them.

Garris Stroud state a powerful quote in his article from Atticus Finch, many readers favorite

character from the novel, “‘You never really understand a person until you consider things from

his point of view… Until you climb into his skin and walk around in it’”. Stroud follows this

sagacious line describing that, “Atticus’ statement sheds some light on a really important goal of

education—to help students understand and be understood by their peers” (Stroud). Atticus’
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metaphor teaches readers that some may not know what it is like to be another person unless

both live through the same experiences. This plays an important role in moral growth for

students because some may not know what is going on in another person’s life and they should

not treat a person differently because they do not know what the other person is going through.

Betsy Gomez’s article ventures deep into the the origin of the novel and what the book itself is

about. Gomez explains that “To Kill a Mockingbird” contains, “themes of racial injustice, gender

roles, and loss of innocence”, and follows this statement with the fact that the novel, “won the

Pulitzer Prize” (Gomez). These three themes won Harper Lee the Pulitzer Prize and taught many

people in the process. Students need to learn about these three matters in order to grow mentally

and become knowledgeable of these topics and apply these into day to day situations in and

outside of school grounds. Adolescents read this novel to further develop their views on

themselves and their fellow students.

“To Kill a Mockingbird” has been known to contain some uncomfortable topics, but

being thrown into uncomfortable situations is very common. Students grow from awkward

experiences, these help build a deeper knowing of what and how to deal with these experiences

when they happen again. Marshall Ramsey has created a political cartoon containing the two

most prominent characters in the novel, Atticus and Scout. The pair are on a bench swing; Scout

is wearing a top with the words “Bilox Schools” upon it. Scout is holding a newspaper reading

“To Kill a Mockingbird Removed”. In the cartoon Atticus says to Scout, “The one thing that

doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person's conscience”, in which Scout responds, “But Atticus,

having a conscience makes me uncomfortable” (Ramsey). To break this comic down, Scout does

not feel comfortable having her own opinion against majority rule because it would only be her
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word against many other people’s. Although, Atticus is teaching her that anyone’s conscience

could possibly rule out everyone else’s. This lesson is also taught in the book through Atticus’

wisdom throughout the novel, which is taught in schools giving students courage to have their

own opinion and do what is right. Garris Stroud speaks out about the schools banning “To Kill a

Mockingbird” because of it’s uncomfortable topics and demands that people, “need to embrace

that discomfort in order to really appreciate the lessons of prejudice and inequality that it wants

our students to learn” (Stroud). Students need to be thrown into the uncomfortable situations

because from those experiences they will learn from the choices they made that were right or

wrong. These two specific lessons will teach students about obstacles they will face later on in

life or right now in school and they will be able to apply that knowledge so they can grow from

it. The uncomfortable feature of the novel gives readers a chance to grow from their discomforts

and helps students know that they can learn from topics that make them a slight uneasy.

On the other hand, some may argue that “To Kill a Mockingbird” is inappropriate for

younger readers. In Alice Randall’s article she explains to readers that, “Mayella Ewell’s lies,

which are the crux of the false charges brought against Tom Robinson,” which is the climax of

the novel, “are far more complicated—too complicated for the eighth grade” (Randall). Tom

Robinson was charged with rape against Mayella Ewell and some may believe that this is far to

unsuitable for students to be reading. They may also say that thirteen-year-old students would

not understand this topic and will not be able to comprehend the book in general. However,

believing that children would not be able to understand certain topics will not help them develop.

PBS released an article covering “The Great American Read Results” in which “To Kill a

Mockingbird” ranked #1. PBS describes the book, “it views a world of great beauty and savage
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inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer— risks

everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime” (PBS). The novel not only

teaches students to fight for what is right, but about topics that they may not have been exposed

to yet. This gives children the chance to speak out their opinions about these topics and look

back on the lessons they had learned in this novel. Schools should be the place where adolescents

acquire this knowledge.

To conclude, schools should be teaching the lessons given by Harper Lee in her novel

“To Kill a Mockingbird”. Giving students a new perspective on themselves and their peers, and

having them grow by going out of their comfort zone are two of the many morals students can

pick up from the novel. Every high school should include “To Kill a Mockingbird” in their

curriculum to help their students grow. If your school has banned the novel, try starting up a

petition, get signatures from your peers, and show the petition to your principal .