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Essay On Scout Finch Lessons In To Kill A Mockingbird

443 Words2 Pages

When many children are young, they do things that aren’t right because they don’t know better. In To Kill a Mockingbird, a Southern Gothic novel by Harper Lee, a young, naive girl Scout Finch has many misconceptions about others. Because of her immature ways, she learns many lessons throughout the first five chapters that alter her perception of others. To begin, Scout receives a lesson from Calpurnia. When Walter Cunningham joins the Finch family for supper, Scout mocks him for pouring syrup all over his food; as a consequence, Calpurnia speaks to her privately and reminds her that she should not be “remark[ing] on [a guest’s] ways” as if she is superior (Lee, 33). Calpurnia offers a valuable message that is meant to encourage Scout to withhold …show more content…

Her school teacher, Miss Caroline, tells her that she cannot read at home because her father doesn’t know how to teach. After confronting Atticus about her problem he says that “[People] never really understand a person until they consider things from his point of view” (39). This is a lesson about considering things from another person’s perspective, which is good for Scout to learn because she tends to judge people based on their looks or ways of doing things. This lesson will help her in real life because before she judges someone, considering their point of view will help her understand other people’s opinions. To end, Atticus teaches Scout a lesson about seeing things from others perspective. To finalize, Scout gets some words of wisdom from Miss Maudie. One day when Scout was at Miss Maudie’s house, she asks her about Boo Radley. Even though Miss Maudie tells her, she explains to Scout that “The things that happen to people, [others] never know” (61). This lesson that Miss Maudie teaches is about not using rumors to form your opinions about others. In the future this will help Scout learn that she needs to get to know a person before she really judges them. To conclude, Scout learns many lessons throughout the first five chapters of the book; not judging people’s ways of doing things, considering things from other people’s perspective, and not using rumors to base your opinions about others. These lessons are essential

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This particular lesson concerns the larger theme of the novel, prejudice and racism, by showing how the children are being taught to treat others equitably. If the younger generation, Jem and Scout are instructed in the fair treatment of all, the cycle of bias could be broken. This instance is particularly impactful coming from Calpurnia due to her being on the end of such racism. Calpurnia understands how hurtful negative preconceptions of people can be and by teaching the children in ways of equality it shows how she is not prejudiced herself, knowing that the children are not bad because of some of their prejudices and judgment of different people but are brought up in the way. By teaching them equality she is showing them how to be a good

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Right in the beginning, we can clearly characterize our eyes of the novel, Scout. After her first day of school, she gets in a bit of a dispute with her teacher Miss Caroline and immediately goes to Atticus for sympathy. “You can 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) Along with giving his daughter sympathy and making a bet that they can still read together at night, Atticus teaches her a valuable lesson that is continued throughout the book.

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Scout learns to not judge people by the things they do. Scout most clearly learns this when she realizes how Boo Radley secretly helps her. For example, when Miss. Maudie’s house catches on fire, Boo came up behind her and put a blanket around her when she was outside, cold. Also, at the end Boo saved Scout from being hurt by Bob Ewell.

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The quote proves the theme of children learning through others with literary devices and figurative language. Mrs. Caroline catches Scout writing a letter to Dill and ultimately Scout flashbacks to Calpurnia teaching her, “She would set me a writing task by scrawling the alphabet firmly across the top of the tablet, then copying out a chapter of the Bible beneath. If I produced her penmanship satisfactorily, she rewarded me…” (Lee, 24) Words in this quote are academically related, such as “firmly” and “penmanship”. Scout uses these words to imply that even at home she was still learning from Calpurnia.

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Early in the book when Scout starts school she finds she does not like her teacher because her teacher does not believe Scout should be reading yet. Scout who has known how to read for a few years now finds this idea silly and decides to ask Atticus if she can stop going to school. Atticus tells her that if she can learn a little trick it will help her a lot in life he states “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 39). This helps scout realize that even though she does not like her teacher’s thinking she can see the logic behind it if she looks at it from her point of view.

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Caroline 's encounter with Walter Cunningham, and Scout’s conversation with Mr. Dolphus Raymond. Harper Lee uses these three situations in her novel to make blatantly clear, a lesson on the faults of adult community; lying to each other in order to feign comfort within one another. An example of this, is the fault Scout recognized in Calpurnia when she lies about her speech potential by conforming to the way of speaking common in the Negro church. During the outburst from Lula due to Calpurnia arriving at the Negro church with Jem and Scout, Scout says this about Calpurnia’s reaction, “ {...} she asked in tones I had never heard her use.

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“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view”. This is one of the many lessons Jean Louise Finch or had to learn as she matured throughout the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. In the novel our main character Scout starts out as a very innocent yet intelligent young girl who slowly matures and understands the world around her due to not only what she is taught by her father Atticus Finch but also her own life experiences. One of the lessons she is taught by Atticus is that you can never judge or understand someone until you have experienced life from their point of view. This is a lesson that Scout fails to understand until near the very end of the book.

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“‘You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…”’(Atticus 33). Atticus expresses this to Scout because he knows that everyone is equal, and every story has multiple sides and point of views. This is what makes Scout realize that everyone has a point of view on things, though it is most important to learn about the source first before accusing. Rumors and perspectives are what can ruin a life, this knowledge allows Scout to look at everything from multiple aspects rather than one. Throughout the entire story, there are different viewpoints on everything from everyone in this story, and Scout learns the biggest lesson of understanding another's story from their point of view rather than her

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During lunchtime at the Finch house, Scout rudely points out Walter’s outlandish etiquette, which motivates Calpurnia to quietly admonish Scout, explaining that, ”anybody [who] sets foot in [her] house is [her company]” (Lee, 27). What Calpurnia reveals to Scout is to be respectful of other people, even her guests. With this in mind, Calpurnia is able to divert Scout from being impolite to people in the future, which essentially forces Scout to perceive others as different from herself. To finalize, Calpurnia teaches Scout how to respect other people because of how different their cultures are.

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Another eye-opener to Scout was Tom’s trial, which reinforced her idea that the world is unfair. Through this understanding, Scout was able to move on better than Jem, becoming a stronger person. And while though she didn’t want to at first, Scout was able to become a bit ladylike when Aunt Alexandra continued her missionary circle meeting with a brave face, after the revelation

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In the novel, Harper Lee uses several literary tools to show the theme of not prematurely judging someone. This thought is first introduced to Scout Finch by her father Atticus, when she is struggling to see her teacher’s perspective. He tells her, “‘First of all, if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. 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 22).

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“Nobody actually wants to grow up. We just want the freedom to use our youths. ”-Unknown. This quote represents Scouts character. How she wants to understand the world yet she doesn’t want to grow up.

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Jean Louise “Scout” Finch is a very bright young girl who lives in the county of Maycomb, Alabama, where people have very in-the-box thoughts and views about life and people they don’t know. Maycomb a dirt poor county where many life lessons can be learned about racism, culture, and certain people. For Scout Finch that is what life is all about, learning. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout Finch learns very important lessons about life through the people of Maycomb which has changed her perspectives on life. First off, one lesson Scout learns about life is to not judge the people she knows in Maycomb.

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What she learns is slowly taught to her by the people around her and the experiences she has. The first life lesson that Scout encounters is not to judge someone until one really knows them. In this novel the first person that starts to teach Scout a lesson is Atticus,

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Throughout the novel, Scout indicates change and maturity in her actions. She learns from Atticus to understand a person by considering their perspective. Furthermore, first day of school starts and Scout is already in trouble because she can read. Later that evening, Scout tells Atticus she is sick and cannot continue school anymore. He tells her that she is going and Scout tells him about the bad day and school.

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