Essay On Scout's Lessons In To Kill A Mockingbird

Throughout the novel, Scout starts out as an ignorant boyish girl. She had no knowledge of the world and relied on her brother. At the end of the novel, she becomes more ladylike and less selfish. The lessons she learns are all in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. One of them is to judge a person, you have to look at things from their point of view. At the beginning of the novel, Scout turns out to be very rude and stubborn. She couldn’t tell who company was and who company wasn’t. She tells Calpurnia that “He ain’t company, Cal, he’s just a Cunningham” (18) before she is cut off and told that anyone that steps inside the house is company. Even after Calpurnia’s words, she didn’t listen. This adds to her being stubborn. She argued with her teacher 3 times on the first day of school. Miss Caroline had a completely bad day thanks to Scout. Miss Caroline said “You’re starting off on the wrong foot in every way, my dear. Hold out your hand” (16). Her lesson came from Atticus only. Scout learns that to judge a person, you have to look at things from their point of view. At first Atticus tells her this to try and convince her to go to school. The
When she met Boo, that was when she fully understood Atticus’s words. When Boo asked her to take him home, she displayed true understanding and said “I would lead him through our house, but I would never lead home” (236) meaning she would never let the neighbors talk about him. She then walked him to his house and looks at everything from his point of view, following Atticus’s advice. Her words were “It was still summertime, and the children came closer…It was fall, and his children fought on the sidewalk in front of Mrs. Dubose…Winter, and his children shivered at the front gate, silhouetted against a blazing house…Summer, and he watched his children’s heart break. Autumn again, and Boo’s children needed him” (237). She finally understood