I1-Tolerance+Essay

Tolerance is acceptance of feelings or habits which are different from ones own. In today’s world, tolerance is important because we must learn to understand one another in order to move forward as a community. In certain situations we might never know why people do things. Accepting and tolerating is sometimes all we can do. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, author Harper Lee shows the theme of tolerance and ambiguity through the characters Scout, Arthur “Boo” Radley. In the novel, To Kill a MockingBird the author Harper Lee uses Jean Louise Finch, Scout, as an unreliable narrator. We as the readers have to tolerate Scout and accept that she might not fully understand everything. In the novel when Scout says “Mr.Radley eyes were so colorless they did not reflect the light.” The readers get the hint that Scout might exaggerate some things. Tolerance helps us accept this and hope that Scout will grow and change throughout the book. Mrs.Dubose is someone in the story that the characters tolerate. She calls Scout an ugly girl and makes Jem read to her. Scout and Jem have to tolerate her. Although these characters are tolerating her Mrs.Dubose is secretly tolerating pain and death. In the book Scout says that Mrs.Dubose “won” this means she won a painful battle with her addiction. The people of Maycomb are tolerant of Mrs.Dubose, but she is also very tolerant. One way the author supports the theme of tolerance is when scout finds out that her father is defending a black person and she has to deal with it even though she is against black people. Her father explains to her you never know a person until you get in their shoes and walk around in them. Another way the author supports it is when Ms.Dubose says a whole bunch of mean things to the kids and makes Jem read to her for a month for destroying her plants. They found out that she was a morphine addict. Finally, Atticus has to tolerate everybody because he is defending a black person. The girl’s father spits on Atticus face but Atticus doesn’t do anything. Arthur “Boo” Radley is another good character of ambiguity. Aside from most likely being a little weird, how does anybody know he isn’t lonely and wants out of his cell called home? “Will you take me home?” Boo asked who is now a 9 year old girl to walk him, a grown man, home. People have to see and understand him from different perspectives. He is still human and has fears and feelings too. The themes tolerance and ambiguity is show through the characters Scout, Mrs. Dubose, and Boo Radley. Readers must tolerate Scout as a little girl, and understand that the things she witness might be exaggerated or a little bit bigger then what they really are. Mrs. Dubose is a dying woman who expresses her pain in the form of anger and rudeness. Boo Radley might be scary on the outside, but on the inside he is human too, he can feel and understand things just like anybody else. The stereotype against him is not fair, and the reader needs to see past his exterior. Author Harper Lee is a fantastic author and wrote a perfect book representing the themes tolerance and ambiguity.