Ignorance In To Kill A Mockingbird

The first verse of the Tame Impala song “The Less I Know The Better” states: “Someone said they live together / Ran out the door together / She was holding hands with Trevor / Not the greatest feeling ever … Oh the less I know the better.” A situation where one finds out more about the person they lust for than they wanted to is a common and undesirable one, hence the phrase “ignorance is bliss”. The classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, takes place in the town of Maycomb, a fictional small town in the American south, during the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement. Reading came easy for Scout Finch, especially with her father’s help (he is an educated lawyer), but her 1st grade teacher, Miss Caroline Fisher, does not
This external conflict brings an often-overlooked truth of the novel to light: ignorance seems to take hold in the rural populations, and the more educated populace has to bar themselves to support this ignorance. Miss Caroline is trying to keep the class “on track” and stay true to the status quo of the young children from rural families being illiterate, but Scout is challenging the status quo by coming into first grade actually knowing something and, eventually, passing the 1st grade. Staying to the status quo is peaceful and “blissful”; not doing that leads to the
The same willful ignorance that the passage cited in this essay (which is about Scout’s education) shows up in Tame Impala’s song “The Less I Know The Better,” which shows that emotional ignorance is bliss. Writing an essay helps you think about what you are actually writing about - this process made me understand why some would like to be ignorant, especially in the context of education. I was always stumped by this truth because I loved to learn and I am still quite ahead of most of my peers, just like Scout, and I can get angry when people try to suppress my knowledge (for lack of a better phrase). In this way, To Kill a Mockingbird is still a valuable book to read as part of a mandatory curriculum, as it is still current in addressing the human