To Kill a Mockingbird: Who Are the People That Scout Comes to Understand as a Result of Following Atticus’ Advice?

"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."

Who are the people Scout comes to understand as a result of following Atticus' advice?

To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, explores different themes and contains many important lessons. One of these lessons is empathy and understanding which is introduced to the main character through Atticus Finch who says "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." By following Atticus' advice, Scout begins to understand many different characters such as her brother Jem, Miss Caroline Fisher and Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley.

Upon going to school for the first time, Scout has a few misunderstandings with her teacher Miss Caroline Fisher. Instead of going back to school and facing the problem, Scout would rather hide from it and not return to school again. ‚... and she said you taught me all wrong, so we can’t ever read any more, ever. Please don’t send me back, please sir...’ (pg. 33) Atticus’ response was to tell Scout that running away from the problem is not an option. He then gives her some helpful advice.

‘.. if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along better with all kinds of folks... consider things from his point of view… climb into his skin…’(pg, 33). By now looking at the days events with a different view, Scout begins to understand that Miss Caroline Fisher really didn’t mean any harm in any of the things she did.

'...but if Walter and I had put ourselves in her shoes, we'd have seen it was an honest mistake on her part. We could not expect her to learn all Maycomb's ways in one day, and we could not hold her responsible when she knew no better. (pg. 33) This proves that this piece of advice from her father is very useful, and she used it again the next time there was a misunderstanding, this time with her brother Jem.

After Jem’s traumatic experience of going back to the Radley house, alone at two o’clock in the morning he stayed silent and moody for a week. Rather than trying to get Jem to talk to her, or play with her, Scout uses the advice that Atticus gave her.

‘...I tried to climb into Jem's skin and walk around in it: if I had gone alone to the Radley place at two in the morning, my funeral would have been held the next day. So I left Jem alone and tried