To Kill A Mockingbird

In To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee explores the themes of education and intelligence through the way characters interact with each other and using the school to convey the differences in class and what that means for which people are educated. Through events in the plot and the language that she uses Harper Lee conveys the point that though you may be educated that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re more intelligent. In this essay I shall explore some of these concepts and analyse them.
Through the characters Harper Lee puts across points about education. Scout is a very important character in this sense as it is her point of view that the story is being told from. Harper Lee portrays Scout as an educated character and also as intelligent but as Scout is so young this is not always seen as a good thing; “she discovered I was literate and looked at me with more than faint distaste.” (P19) In this instance it is seen that being educated is a negative thing as it is different from the average student. Harper Lee is showing a fear of people who are educated who shouldn’t be. Miss Caroline portrays this with her dislike of Scout for being able to read. This shows education as something that is seen as positive only if it fits in with society. This fits in with the theme that just because you are educated doesn’t mean that you are intelligent as Scout is portrayed as an intelligent but in this instance it is seen as a bad thing. This leads to Scouts distaste for school and rather than teaching her academic lessons, school for Scout teaches her more about the ways that the world works with social class. This can be seen with the way the school and the town treats the Ewell family. Scout learns this in class when on the first day of school Atticus explains to him about why the Ewells only go to school for the first day; “Ewells are members of an exclusive society made up only of Ewells”
The Ewells are seen as uneducated and Harper Lee in this instance makes this a negative thing as they are seen as the villainous characters In To Kill A Mockingbird. The first time we get introduced to the family is in the setting of the school which is important as it shows that they are uneducated. This can be reflected in the lexis that Mr Ewell used; “I ain’t touched her, Link Deas, and ain’t about to go with no nigger”(P275) The use of “ain’t” is poor grammar and colloquial and makes him seem uneducated compared to someone like Atticus who generally has good grammar and constructs his sentences with what people would see as good English. The derogatory language used by Ewell as well makes him seem even more uneducated and xenophobic. Harper Lee has purposely has used the difference in language to show the difference in education. The juxtaposition between Atticus and Ewell can also be seen as good and evil and this boils down to how much they’ve been educated. This puts the educated people in a good light as they are more open to people and there ideas where as Bob Ewell is seen as uneducated and scared and bitter towards the things he’s knows not much about.
Atticus is seen in To Kill A Mockingbird as a morally good character. He is well respected throughout the town of Mayfair and this is seen as a reflection of his education. Harper Lee has purposely made Atticus educated and open to all ideas and one of the first things you learn about Atticus is his education; “Atticus went to Montgomery to read Law” (p4) I think the character of Atticus is there to show the reader that through education you can become a good person and be open to other peoples beliefs and ways of life. Having Atticus as an educated character is important because he then passes his wisdom onto his children Scout and Jem. Scout and Jem are both portrayed by Harper Lee as intelligent characters and this is a lot to do with Atticus who they both look up too.
You can see the difference between education an intelligence here when Miss Caroline is shocked by the fact that Scout can read. Miss Caroline is portrayed as an educator but not always in the best light she is shown as fragile. Scouts disillusionment with the school system is way for Harper Lee to portray that academic education isn’t everything and her and Jem learn a lot more through life experiences like watching the injustice of the trail. Harper Lee portrays Atticus as a better teacher than Miss Caroline as he is not only teaching them to read he is also teaching them to have a social conscience; “Most people are Scout when you finally see them” (p309) This is at the end of the book and it is important that Atticus still believes that after all this injustice people still have good in them and he is passing these beliefs onto his children. I believe Harper Lees portrayal of this story through Scouts eyes lets us know that she has learnt the most not from school but from watching the injustices of the world which takes them from innocence to adulthood and the more there educated the less innocent they become.
A text to compare Harper Lees views on education is Carol Anne Duffys Education For Leisure which is a poem and a dramatic monologue which I think is about the characters disillusionment with the education system. The persona in the poem says :”I breath out talent on the glass to write my name” This reflects the characters disappointment that education has done nothing for her as she is still unemployed and signing on in the job center. This is in contrast to Harper Lees view of education as something you need to make the most out of life.
In class discussions I found that my views changed on intelligence and education as you can see in both Carol Anne Duffys poem and Harper Lees work that education does not automatically make you intelligent and that highly educated people still can be seen as stupid by other people. In class discussion I realised that intelligence is subjective to the person and the situation that they are in as I’m sure even Bob Ewell was intelligent in the way that he knew a million and one ways to get out of working.
In conclusion I think that Harper Lee is trying to portray the fact that though you may be educated that doesn’t necessarily mean that you know a lot. Harper Lee puts across the meaning that you learn just as much from life experiences than you do in education and I think this is similar with Carol Anne Duffy who’s poem shows that education isn’t everything but not having enough education can be very dangerous.






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