"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. "The Wisdom of a Father" describes the important lessons Atticus taught to his children.

In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, Atticus Finch is a lawyer with two young children, Jem and Scout. Scout loves to fight and hates when people try to make her act more like a girl. Jem, her older brother, plays football and begins to struggle with growing up, not wanting to spend much time with his little sister. The children's mother dies when they're young, so Atticus, although busy with his work, still tries to take care of his children and to teach them important lessons about life. Two important lessons in the book are tolerance and self-control, which he teaches them through both his example and explanation.

To begin, Atticus teaches tolerance by his example many times in the book. One way he shows tolerance is towards the African-Americans. He is not ashamed to be defending an African-American, even when the rest of the town is putting him down for doing it.

Northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)

1885 illustration from Mark Twain's Adventures of ...

Pie chart of religions of African Americans

"My folks said your daddy was a disgrace an' that nigger oughta hang from the water-tank!" (P. 76) Even his family does not support him defending a Negro. "I guess it ain't your fault if Uncle Atticus is a nigger-lover besides, but I'm here to tell you it certainly does mortify the rest of the family--". (P. 83) Atticus lives as an example to his children of tolerating the hurtful comments that people say to them. He does not let them upset him or make him angry.

To continue, tolerance is also taught to the children by the explanations that Atticus gives them. Scout gets in a fight with Cecil Jacobs, a boy from school, because he said that "Atticus defends niggers." Atticus tells Scout that she has to tolerate or endure the hardship and pain of what people say to...