Blooms Literary Themes - THE HEROS ... - ymerleksi - home

208Harper Leeadding that society nevertheless does need heroes “because it has tohave constellating images to pull together all of these tendencies toseparation, to pull them together into some intention” (163). Atticusserves this function in both his household and in the community.The majority of his lessons as a father focus on finding context forassumptions and synthesizing ideas and concepts into coherency forthe children. He clarifies what it means to be “poor” for Scout as shestruggles to understand the relationship to their lot in life vis-à-visthe Cunninghams and also how the inconsistencies she sees betweenher home life and her school life may be reconciled through “compromise.”Scout thinks compromise is “bending the law,” when it is actually“an agreement reached by mutual concessions” (36)—in this case,meaning that if Scout will continue to attend school, she and Atticuswill continue to read at home, even though her new teacher said thatAtticus was teaching Scout to read “all wrong” (34). Though Atticusrespects law and societal order, he values individual experience andperspective even more—as long as both adhere to basic moral andethical standards.One of Atticus’s most memorable lessons is the necessity tounderstand other human beings before judging them. Atticusexplains to Scout that her teacher could not be expected to know allthe ways of the community, because it was her first day teaching andbeing new to the school, adding that “you never really understanda person until you consider things from his point of view, . . . untilyou climb into his skin and walk around in it” (34). Atticus provideswider perspective to those things that people tend to assume orgloss over, such as quick judgments about the character and actionsof others without due consideration. The ability to illuminate andeducate is a hero’s function, one that Jem and Scout largely takefor granted until they see Atticus as heroic in a way that is moreobvious to them: when he shoots the rabid dog. The drama of thisscene is clear, including Jem’s speechless reaction, but its importancelies more in the effects of the shooting. It is likely that Jemand Scout would not have understood so acutely the heroism inAtticus’s court battle over Tom Robinson had they not seen himin this light; seeing him acting conventionally heroic lends morecredence to the more subtle heroisms that Atticus enacts every dayat home.