Examples

Have you ever felt so inspired by your role model or a person you would wish to be? As Aristotle once said, " Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all." In other words educating without putting your heart into it isn't learning anything at all. "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee and "The Color of Water" by James McBride show the inspiration of education and learning who we want to be or what we should shy away from. They both connect on the emphasis of Aristotle's quote," Educating the mind without educating the hear is no education at all."

Throughout life, one grows and tries to discover who they really are. As children and young adults, change occurs very frequently in order for one to discover who they really are. John Dewey once said, “The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.” In other words, human beings will always be works in progress who constantly change physically, emotionally and mentally and the choices that one makes throughout their life will impact who they become. Two examples of how one discovers their own identity is Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird and James McBride’s memoir, The Color of Water. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee uses Scout, a young girl, to show how ones identity can change when they discover new information. In McBride’s, The Color of Water, he shows how it can be difficult to form one’s own identity when they are confined by the chains of their religion, and family. One can never be perfect, and everybody changes over time, but the decisions that one makes, will determine who they become.

Adolescents have always had the common habit of acusing their parents of ignorance. The thought of their parents never having a clear understanding of what they ever go through has always been one to lurk their minds. Once stated by Mark Twain, "When i was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around, but when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years." In other words, Twain could never stand to here what his father had to say about most situations, until he grew old enough to understand the wise thoughts of his father. In the books "The Color of Water" by James McBride and "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, it would be fair to say that the main characters of both of these books, atleast once in their lives, had gone through the same feelings as Twain. It wasn't until these characters grew old enough, that they finally understood what their parents were talking about in their past years, even causing them to notice how wise one's parents could be.

Education should work towards not only teaching one what something means but how to apply what they learned in reality. Intelligence is truly pursued when it is coexistent with a well-formed character. This is evident in To Kill a Mockingbird and The Color of Water. A quote once said by Martin Luther King Jr., exemplified this idea: “Intelligence plus character- that is the goal of true education.” In other words, this quote states that education should positively shape one’s mind and actions. One should use what they learn for the better, therefore building their character. Through textual evidence such as the themes of both To Kill a Mockingbird and The Color of Water, this quote demonstrates similar meanings between the two novels.

As a child or young adult matures, they begin to find themselves. They do this by experiencing different things as well as making decisions in their everyday lives. John Dewey once said “The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action. In other words, the choices and decisions that one makes will constantly change the person that he or she will become. Works of literature that explain this quote are “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee and “The Color of Water” by James McBride. In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Lee uses Scout to show that the more exposure that you get to things that you never knew existed, will affect the type of person that you become. In McBride’s “The Color of Water”, he uses the character Rachael to show how difficult it is to find yourself when you are compelled to follow the religion of your parents and the rest of your family. Through symbolism, visual imagery, and metaphors/similes, both authors carry out this message in their literature.

Everyone has an identity. You aren't just born with it, but you gain it from the people around you, and the people you look up to actions. John Dewey once said, "The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action." This quote means the way you act around people and towards people is what you are. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout goes through this process. You aren't just born with your identity, you become it.

Some children don’t realize why adults stress about them building good character. Adults know that their children need to a good character and be as smart as they can be. Martin Luther King Jr. once put this into words, “Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.” Children don’t realize this but adults know that to be considered truly brilliant, you have to have a good personality not just intelligence. In the two novels, The Color of Water by James McBride and To Kill a Mockingbird characters explore different kinds of intelligence and the effort that parents make to make sure their children have good morals. In The Color of Water, Ruth, a struggling Jewish mother, believes intelligence is key and works on her children maintaining a good character by taking them to culture activities, church, museums, and teaching responsibility. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is about two rambunctious children named Jem and Scout and their father Atticus, a well-known lawyer, behaving as a role model for Jem and bringing his sister, Aunt Alexandra, to his home to teach Scout how to act like a lady. With a series of important events, McBride and Lee taught the protagonists the importance of good character.

While a child is around grown-ups they shelter the child but as they grow up they stop sheltering them as much, giving them space to grow and mature, becoming their own person. When children are young they see the world as a fair place but as they grow up that image disappears and they see the world as it really is, a place you have to work hard to get things you want. As Mark Twain had once said, “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” In other words, the father never had changed the fourteen year boy was the one changing and building his character. Two examples of literature on the loss of innocence are To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Color of Water by James McBride. To Kill a Mockingbird is about young siblings who slowly discover the dirty truth about their town. The Color of Water is a biography of James McBride’s childhood describing the difficulties in his life and how he over came them. Through internal and external conflict in Scout, Jem, and James life they build their character based on their challenges.

There are many well educated people in this world, but if you can’t feel then there is no point in having an education. If you learn with only your mind, and not with your heart, then you will fail to understand yourself and others. Love is a whole education in itself. Aristotle once said “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” If you don’t have the ability to feel your education has no purpose. To feel, you need to understand, and to understand you must have an education. This quote connects to The Color of Water because Ruth instills the importance of education in James, but she also believes that you need to have believe in something. Ruth’s love was found in God. The quote also relates to ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, because Scout, Atticus, and Jem all feel empathy and compassion for Tom Robinson, they know Tom is accused of rape since he is a colored man. To be fully educated, you don’t only need to know the basics, but you also need to know the importance of feeling.