Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird

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To Stand on the Porch

Modern Literature

Throughout the events of the trial in Maycomb, Atticus’s most important advice for Scout is 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) As the society’s prejudices surround Scout and Jem, Atticus encourages them to cultivate respect within themselves; not only for other races, but for everyone. Throughout “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Harper Lee traces out Scout’s growing respect for outsiders, for her aggressors, and eventually for Boo Radley.

In her first school year, Scout has no respect for anyone different from her. An example of this is her treatment of Walter Cunningham, which is heedless at best and merciless at worst: after an explanation of Walter’s habits lands her in trouble with Miss Caroline, she finds him in the schoolyard later and attacks him. After Jem invites Walter to dinner, Scout shows scorn for Walter’s revived dignity, commenting, “By the time we reached our front steps Walter had forgotten he was a Cunningham.” (Lee, 23) She shows marked disapproval for the way he eats, and she decides to eat in the kitchen rather than join Walter and the others at the dinner table. However, as Scout gains experience and maturity, she begins to put aside her differences from others. She becomes friends with Walter, and she asks Aunt Alexandra if she can play with him. Aunt Alexandra appalls Scout with the same prejudice towards the Cunninghams that Scout held two years before: “Jean Louise will not invite Walter Cunningham to this house…Because--he--is--trash, that’s why you can’t play with him. I’ll not have you around him, picking up his habits an...

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...…It was only a fantasy. We would never see him.” (Lee, 242) Finally, however, when Boo Radley saves Scout and Jem from Bob Ewell, she is able to see him as he is: as a man. Scout issues her final judgment on Boo in the final paragraphs of the book, as she refers to the Gray Ghost: “an’ Atticus, when they finally saw him, why he hadn’t done any of those things…Atticus, he was real nice….” (Lee, 281)

“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is a book primarily focused on racial prejudice, but it is even more focused on the prejudices of each day. Scout learns, over the events of the story, how to treat anyone she meets; be they outliers, opponents, or enigmas; with respect and dignity. Through experience and maturation, she finally learns to “climb into [one’s] skin and walk around in it.”

Works Cited

Citations

To Kill A Mockingbird; Harper Lee

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