A Pivotal Moment In To Kill A Mockingbird

In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee, the author, wrote about the journey of a little girl, named Scout, as she grows up. Scout’s father Atticus serves as a grand part of her aging because he teaches her many life lessons. The most significant of all the lessons and a pivotal moment in the novel occurs when Atticus tells Scout that “you never really a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them,”, which contributes to one of Scout’s intellectual changes and the theme, understanding requires time (Lee 372). The pivotal moment happens shortly after the end of Scout’s first school day. Miss Caroline says that Atticus should stop teaching her and the day becomes filled with misfortunes. She tells Atticus about her day and then Atticus states one of the most iconic lines in the entire novel: “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). This represents a pivotal moment because it leads to intellectual change within Scout and makes the central idea of the novel shift to a process of learning and growing up.

Before the statement, she liked to assume information and had little understanding of others. During her first day of school, Scout spoke to Miss Caroline and Scout stated,”Walter’s one of the Cunninghams” (26). She just assumed that Miss Caroline understood these things about Maycomb. However, after Atticus makes the statement about understanding from another’s point of view, Scout turns into a new woman. She even finds herself understanding Boo Radley when she recalled,”Atticus was right… just standing on the Radley porch was enough” (374). Scout has started to gain the quality of understanding people from their points of