Respect in To Kill A Mockingbird

In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch is portrayed as a respected, knowledgeable, and true person. I have a good deal of respect for Atticus Finch, mainly because of his outlook on parenting and basic respect for others. Atticus believes that you truly can't understand someone unless you step into their shoes. "You never really understand a person until you consider things from their point of view" (Lee 34). This quote shows that Atticus is a caring parent and wants his children to learn that every person is going through their own problems and you mostly don't know all of them. He wants them to know to be kind to others no matter how they act. Atticus wants his children to learn certain lessons through experiences rather than seeing or hearing things. “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do” (Lee 116). Atticus has good parenting morals because he understood that Jem had to go read to Mrs. Dubose to keep her mind off the painkiller. He wanted Jem to be brave and do it, even if he didn’t want to, because then he would truly understand what bravery was. All in all, Atticus is a great father figure and a fantastic parenting model.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is told through the perspective of Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, a young girl who clearly shows childhood innocence in multiple scenes in the book. Throughout the story she meets many people who are all different in their own way. When she invites Walter Cunningham over for dinner, he starts to pour syrup on his food. "He would probably have poured it into his milk class had I not asked what the sam hill he was doing," (Lee 28). Scout doesn’t understand yet that everyone has different habits and not all of them will be normal. Another example of Scout’s childhood innocence is when an angry mob comes to the Maycomb jail to harm Tom Robinson when Scout and Jem happen to be there. "Hey Mr. Cunningham. How's your entailment gettin' along?...Don’t you remember me Mr. Cunningham?” (Lee 155). Scout, being young, doesn't understand the magnitude of the dangerous situation and starts to talk to one of the men, Mr. Cunningham, who she recognizes. Another scene is when her nanny, Calpurnia, takes her to her church which happens to be for african americans. "That Calpurnia led a modest double life never dawned on me. The idea that she and a separate existence outside our household was a novel one, to say nothing of her having command of two languages." (Lee 128). She is amazed when she notices that Calpurnia has a life outside of the one that she has with them. With her childhood innocence, she doesn't realize that Calpurnia doesn't belong only to their lives, but has her own situations going on. Children are very self-focused, and understand only the world as it relates to them.

In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, early on, Atticus Finch tells his daughter Scout that: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-”. Not only does Scout learn this lesson but many other characters do throughout the story. Scout applied this towards the end of the book when Scout is standing on the Radley porch looking down the street, remembering moments. “Summer, and he watched his children’s heart break. Autumn again, and Boo’s children needed him. Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in there. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough,” (Lee 282). Scout was noticing that many of her memories from the past couple of years took place around the Radley house. Atticus also uses his own advice when he says: “According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew,” (Lee 116). He sees that Mrs. Dubose wanted to go out of this world without being addicted to morphine so she weaned herself off of it by having Jem read to her. Atticus puts himself in her perspective and understands how hard it must have been for her. He also gains respect for her even though their views were different. Finally, Arthur “Boo” Radley steps in Scouts shoes because he cares about her and Jem. “You were so busy looking at the fire you didn’t know it when he put the blanket over you,” (Lee 76). Throughout the entire story, Boo steps into Jem and Scout’s shoes and sees that they sometimes need some extra caring which is why he puts the blanket over the, leaves them things in the tree, and saves Jem at the end. I think that Atticus has the most empathy because he puts himself in Mrs. Dubose shoes and sees how difficult it would’ve been to be drug free before you died.