"Scout, I think I'm beginning to understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time. It's because he wants to stay inside” (Lee 227).
Quote #3- This quote occurs when Jem and Scout return to their present-receiving knothole and find that it is filled with cement. They interrogate Mr. Radley and find out that he filled up the hole. He has a legitimate excuse in claiming it was sick, and throws Jem off by telling him he should have known this. This quote is important because it shows us that Mr. Radley knows his brother has been leaving gifts in that tree, and Jem and Scout realise that they have gotten Boo into trouble.
On a rainy day, a man at the bus stop asks for change. The two choices are walking past him avoiding eye contact, or giving him the change with a smile. Before even talking to this man, one may have already made the assumption that he is homeless or a drug addict wanting to buy his next high. But assumptions cannot accurately explain who he is or why he needs money. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee explores this idea of judging others before looking at the world from their perspective. Scout and Jem, although raised in a prejudice town, learn from their father Atticus that who a person is racially, does not define them as a person. Although the children make up stories about Arthur “Boo” Radley to pass the time in part one of the novel, in part two the Tom Robinson situation widens their eyes to the biased ways of their town. In the end, Jem and Scout are rescued by Boo Radley, the very person they feared during their childhood. Mockingbirds are used as a symbol in the novel to portray the fact that innocent and caring people are sometimes the most abused. The theme of presumptions and the dangers of judging others are explored through the childhood fable of Boo, the story of Atticus, and the trial of Tom Robinson; the mockingbirds.
In To Kill A Mockingbird, a theme that develops throughout the whole book is that people are not always who they seem to be. People are not always who they seem to be because they hide their true selves, there are rumors about them, and people are racist.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, children are forced to discover the importance of compassion and tolerance that help shape their maturity as a young adult. Compassion and sympathy are characteristics that Scout gradually learns in order to become more mature.
Boo Radley, a character who never comes out of his house and sounds as scary as his name portrays an important theme in Harper Lee’s classic To Kill A Mockingbird. The classic is rich with themes and inspires many people to learn from these themes. One of the main themes is developed by Tim Johnson, the pet of Maycomb, Tom Robinson, a black man convicted of rape, and Boo Radley. The theme these characters are developing is that it is a sin to hurt or kill something that is not harmful.
H.Jackson Brown Jr, once said, “Live so that when your children think of fairness, caring and integrity, they think of you.” In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, characters help define what fairness is. Fairness treating each other with equitability, what they deserve. There is various examples of this throughout the book. In Part one of To Kill a Mocking Bird, one lesson learned is that one should do the fair even if people disagree with it. In Part one of To Kill a Mocking Bird, one lesson learned is that one should do the fair even if people disagree with it.
Adversity. Struggles and misfortunes. Adversity teaches a person many lessons. It helps a person to grow and become a stronger individual. One learns to overcome obstacles and be resilient through the obstacles they come to find. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, the protagonist Scout, initially is a curious, carefree tom-boy who doesn’t always understand why things are the way they are. Then Scout learns, through disagreements, fights, scrutiny, and other hardships, how to see the viewpoints of others. Ultimately, Scout becomes stronger and more mature than she was before as she begins to grasp why people do and say certain things. Scout demonstrates the idea that adversity can strengthen an individual, because she learns when
September begins and Dill leaves Maycomb to go back to the town of Meridian. Scout feels sad but is excited to go to school for the first time. She has been longing to go to school and in the past would spy on the school children through a telescope. However, on her first day of school she gets assigned to Miss Caroline Fisher who is unaware of the Maycomb customs because she is from north Alabama. Miss Caroline Fisher is not very pleasant with the children and becomes extremely upset with Scout when she learns that Atticus has taught Scout to read. She makes Scout feel guilty for having learn to read before school started. Scout complains to her older brother Jem but he tells her that Miss Caroline is just trying a new method of teaching.
Scout is initially naïve and does not think about how her actions affect others, showing that children can be offensive when their naïveté equates to a lack of empathy. For example, when Jem invites Walter Cunningham over for dinner, Scout is not accustomed to the way he eats. She says to Calpurnia, “But he’s gone and drowned his dinner in syrup, he’s poured it all over” (Lee 32). Scout’s youth prevents her from understanding the differences in other people’s life circumstances, including Walter’s. Her family is wealthier than the Cunninghams and she knows proper manners; Walter, on the other hand, likely does not. Scout’s age, combined with a notable gap in background and experience leads Scout to lack empathy for Walter. This lack of empathy
To Kill A Mockingbird is about a lawyer named Atticus who chooses to defend a African-American man named Tom just as equally as he would defend a white man in a court room. This novel takes place in the 1930's when there was racism going on between blacks and whites. Atticus is a person in the novel who choose to learn to understand others. By showing that he does this, his quote said “ 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.” In this novel there are a couple of people who have trouble understanding people, not understanding people, and doing a little bit of both.
Scout wonders why Atticus is going along with something that society did not agree with, defending a negro who has been claimed to commit a crime, but he responds with saying it was the right thing to do and that the society was corrupt. “If you shouldn’t be defendin’ him, then why are you doin’ it?” “For a number of reasons, the main one is, if I didn’t I couldn’t hold up my head in town, I couldn’t represent this country in legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again.”(100) This adds to the kind of character Atticus is, he is bold for being the one to stand up for what is right in a corrupt society. Atticus is shown to have a strong belief in equallity, while everyone else is judged merely for the color of their skin. This gives to how Atticus is able to resist corruption, not showing prejudice to those who didn’t do anything to deserve
“You never understand a person until you consider things from their point of view, until you climb into his skin and walk around in it,” is a quote from the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird.” This book is about a family of three, living in a household with the addition of their aunt. This includes Scout (daughter), Jem (son), Atticus (father), and Aunt Alexandrea (aunt). The kids do not call their father by that title, but by his name Atticus. The second part of the book is about a black man on trial who was accused of raping a woman. Atticus was his attorney and he tried everything he could to make sure the jury saw that he did not rape her, but sadly, it was not a success and he was sent to jail. They live in a small town in Macomb, Alabama.
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
Maycomb’s education system is depicted as a failure throughout chapters 2 and 3. Lee’s description of the student’s poor learning attitudes, the teacher’s unskillful teaching methods, all highlights the failure of Maycomb’s education system.