A person does not truly understand someone until walking in their shoes. Scout learns this with various people. Boo Bradley was the first person that Scout put herself in someone elses perspective. Boo Bradley stays indoors at all times. Scout realized he did that because many people were afraid that he would hurt them. Boo is not sociable, Many people say that he is a creepy, old, unhappy man. Scout later realizes that he is not mean and that he is generous. Boo finds ways to treat the kids in many different ways. He is a very kind man towards Scout and Jem. Boo would leave gifts for the kids in a hollowed out tree. When Ms. Maudie’s house started on fire he put a blanket around Scout. Calpurnia was another character Scout connected with.
Throughout the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” written by Harper Lee, the readers can see how Scout changes her view about Boo Radley. Because of their nosiness, Jem, Scout, and Dill try to drag Boo out his house and to the outside world. Their innocent actions combined with Boo’s actions changed the image of Boo, in their minds, from “a malevolent phantom” (10), a person who kills cats and eats squirrels to a neighbor they can trust, who saves them from Bob Ewell. Scout says at the end, “Boo was our neighbor” (373). The readers can see a great change in their relationship. At the beginning, the children cannot even go near Boo’s place without palpitation, but at the end, Scout is comfortable enough to walk Boo up to his front porch. Throughout the novel, Scout has changed her view of Boo after a chain of Boo’s actions toward her. As Scout grows older, she becomes wiser to understand her father’s lesson, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb into his skin and walk around in it ” (39). Her father says this at the beginning, but till the end, thanks to the maturity combined with Boo’s actions that help Scout to understand it. She has matured enough to realize that people should not judge other people by rumor, but give them some chances to prove themselves.
Atticus tries his best to teach and show others-specifically Scout and Jem-how to judge what is right and what is wrong. First, Atticus tells Scout a very valuable life lesson. This is said when Scout was complaining to Atticus about her day at school, he said to her, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it” (Lee 30). Atticus is telling scout that she cannot truly judge someone's actions until she sees things from their side. This is something that Scout only understands near the end of the novel, when she sits on Arthur Radley’s front porch and tries to see what he see when he sits there, and she imagines how Boo see the events in the novel and in doing so began to understand him.
Due to Scout's curiosity for Boo, and Boo’s love for the children, Scout learns many important lessons. She learns that “‘you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it’”(Lee 30). Through this lesson Atticus tried to teach Scout, she is not scared when she finally meets Boo no matter the fact that she grew up hearing Boo as a creepy and horrid person. Near the end of the book when Scout is dropping Boo home, she sees and understands what Boo sees and feels, and appreciates him as a neighbor and a guardian. Another lesson Boo helps Scout to understand is when Scout and Jem got air rifles and Atticus explained, “‘shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird’…‘mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy’”(Lee 90). She is taught this lesson through the characters Boo and Tom Robinson. Tom was shown as a Mockingbird since everyone had known he was innocent but was charged, showing that they were sentencing a Mockingbird. Another reason why Tom is a Mockingbird is even during his testimony, he did not tell the court about everything that had happened that evening, just so that he could save Mayella one last beating. Tom tells us during his testimony that Mayella asked
To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming of age story, through the eyes of Scout, a young girl living in Maycomb County, Alabama. Scout is raised in an odd time in American history when racism and prejudice were routine. Scout was surrounded by people that forced to learn many crucial life lessons and help her mature into a respectable lady. List points
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a novel set during the 1930s in a small town in Southern Alabama called Maycomb. The story is told through the narrator, Scout, a young girl who lives with her father, a lawyer, and her older brother Jem. As a child, Scout is portrayed as a stubborn and obnoxious little girl who loves to read, play with her brother Jem, and fantasize about her mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley. However, her life gets turned upside down when Scout’s father agrees to do something that is deemed unacceptable in the south; he agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who is accused of raping a white girl. Instantly, Atticus and his family go from being respected and beloved by their town, to being
Throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem and Scout 's perception of courage drastically changes their behavior as they mature. They learn a lot about courage throughout the novel from their father Atticus and what they learn from him influences their choices and opinions. Although Jem is older than Scout, they both experience change in their behavior. At the beginning of the novel, Jem is still a young boy. He is defiant towards Atticus, he plays all the usual childhood games with Scout and Dill, and he engages in the younger children’s obsession with Boo Radley. As the novel progresses, Jem becomes less defiant and more understanding of adults. Jem witnesses the physical and moral courage of his father before and during the trial of
Then, Miss Maudie’s house caught on fire in the middle of a cold night, causing the whole neighborhood to wake up and go outside to see what was happening. Jem and Scout were standing in front of the Radley house, watching the fire, when somebody came and put a blanket over Scout’s shoulders. At the time, neither Jem nor Scout noticed this happen, but later they realized it had to have been Boo. Later on, after the Halloween play at the school, the Finch children were walking home in the dark when they were attacked by Bob Ewell. Jem and Scout could have been killed, but again, Boo came out at just the right moment and saved them. At this point, Boo was thought of as a watchful protector and a true neighbor to the children.
In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” there is evidence of a coming of age story or lesson. Scout learns not to judge people and try and understand where they are coming from and to view a situation from their point of view.
Children go to school to gain knowledge, but life can give children the most important education. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem, and Scout are two growing children navigating life in the 1930’s in racist Alabama. They see racism throughout their town and have to navigate how they want to live their lives or follow their town. In their own school, they see racist people, and they often question what they hear, see, and learn. Scout and Jem both learn most of their knowledge from, their father Atticus, their maid Calpurnia, and their neighbors. The people that are present in their lives shape Jem and Scout into the people they are becoming. Education from school helps Jem and Scout advance, but the information they learn from life allows them to mature.
With the increase in people 's life, they mature and change. The protagonist grows up like a novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, continues. Scout frivolous and disrespectful at the beginning of the novel.
Throughout the book Lee portrays the theme by using the character Boo Radley. In the first chapter Scout and her brother describe Boo as a malevolent and hideous person who eats animals raw. All throughout the majority of the book Scout never actually sees Boo Radley and because of this she places judgment and false accusations on him. Although at the very end of the novel Scout does meet Boo Radley in person, and she is standing on the porch of the Radley place when she starts to come to a realization. She says “Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.”(374). From analyzing this quote Scout is finally seeing perspectives
Judgment, often defined as an opinion or a conclusion, is a relevant term throughout Harper Lee’s writings (Merriam Webster). As seen in To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman the relevance of judgment is evident through discrimination of individuals skin color. At first glance, an average reader might perceive the novel as a story of an unconventional upbringing. Although this reader is not completely mistaken, a key point is lost. This point is the theme of pre-judgment and its destructiveness. To Kill a Mockingbird portrays Atticus Finch as a rather fierce civil rights supporter, where as Go Set a Watchman depicts Atticus as a blatant racist. Although the novels do not go hand in hand, it is obvious to see how the society Atticus is placed in is intensely racist and prejudiced, inherently forcing preconceived notions upon him. The test to real character is whether or not a man can uphold his moral values in a society so small minded. Atticus Finch defies societal norms in the South in To Kill a Mockingbird when he resists backlash and defends a black man accused of raping a white woman. Contrastingly, Go Set a Watchman illustrates Atticus as an old white man who is part of various clubs against black civil rights. Reasoning for this comes from pre-judgment and its destructiveness to character. If Atticus had lived in civilization of equality and good will, much of his bigotry would be non existent in Go Set a Watchman. The point of prejudgment and its
Boo indirectly taught Scout lessons, and by understanding his story it helped her finally make sense of the lessons other people tried to teach her. The main lesson came from Atticus when he told Scout “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view ….Until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” Although this lesson was intended to help Scout get on with her teacher better it actually helped her understand Boo. Even before Scout meets Boo she does seem to empathise with him.
Nonetheless, to also have a father as Atticus who nurtured the ethics of being kind and loving to others with the acknowledgement that they are also capable of bad. Only through him does Scout really learn how to view other people’s mindsets. She goes from thinking childishly, to being able to put herself in other people's perspective. From the first lesson Atticus gave her at the beginning with her teacher Miss Caroline, which she struggled to understand; she applied for Boo Radley. The fact that Boo saved their lives, serves as an example that even though they live in a very bigotry, prejudiced type world, there is still good. With her new ability of understanding, Scout sees that. It’s also safe to say that with that, Scout will not fall into viewing the world so commonly, but actually be understanding of