Examples Of Adversity In To Kill A Mockingbird

Adversity. Struggles and misfortunes. Adversity teaches a person many lessons. It helps a person to grow and become a stronger individual. One learns to overcome obstacles and be resilient through the obstacles they come to find. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, the protagonist Scout, initially is a curious, carefree tom-boy who doesn’t always understand why things are the way they are. Then Scout learns, through disagreements, fights, scrutiny, and other hardships, how to see the viewpoints of others. Ultimately, Scout becomes stronger and more mature than she was before as she begins to grasp why people do and say certain things. Scout demonstrates the idea that adversity can strengthen an individual, because she learns when

Atticus gives her a tip to understand why people do the things that they do after she has some issues with her first grade teacher at school. “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). Atticus tells Scout this to help her get along with others better. This takes place early on in the novel, but later in the novel Scout remembers this lesson. She uses it with Jem when he is being particularly difficult in his maturing. She also uses it while standing on the Radley’s porch after meeting Boo. Each situation that Scout remembers this, she has had an issue of some sort and she uses her father’s lesson to at least try to overcome it. Over the course of the novel, she is able to look at situations through the eyes of others. She starts off not understanding why people do and say certain things, but through this lesson of Atticus’, she begins to understand. People have their reasons for how they act, and towards the end of the novel Scout is able to recognize this. At the end of the novel, Scout sleepily recalls the events of The Gray Ghost and Atticus explains to her that most people really are good if you think about it. “Atticus, he was real nice….”…“Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.” (376). Atticus is talking as though he is referring to the book that he had just been reading, but he is really referring to Boo Radley. For years, Jem and Scout have heard rumors about their neighbour from the people of Maycomb, so they have viewed him as this cruel, wicked man. In reality, he is a kind person who is untouched by the prejudices of the southern United States in this time. Scout has learned, throughout the course of the novel, that most people do have good within them if you really try to