People are influenced by the ones around them; these people can have positive or negative influences. Mentors are role models for you look up to and learn from. The only way for mentors to have a positive influence is if they are heard. Listening is the key. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee creates mentors for Scout to show listening to the advice of those before you can lead to strong morals and an understanding of others. Scout has many mentors throughout the story, but Atticus is one of the most influential. Atticus teaches Scout life lessons that she uses to develop as a person. He enlightens Scout’s thinking by suggesting that “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you …show more content…
Miss Maudie does a superb job of this. Scout often goes over to Miss Maudie’s when Jem and Dill exclude her. Miss Maudie teaches her to respect others and stay positive in unfavorable times. As Miss Maudie’s house is burning down she jokes, “Always wanted a smaller house, Jem Finch. Gives me more yard. Just think, I’ll have more room for my azaleas now” (Lee 97). She understands her house is ruined but she makes light of the situation by joking about it. Miss Maudie teaches Scout about positivity as well as respect. Scout was talking about how old her father and all the other adults in the neighborhood were old. “You’re lucky, you know. You and Jem have the benefit of your father’s age. If your father was thirty you’d find life quite different,” Miss Maudie was reiterating to Scout (Lee 120). Miss Maudie is helping Scout the good qualities about Scout’s father because she wants Scout to see that Atticus has humility, integrity, and strong morals. By putting her father into perspective for Scout, she teaches Scout to appreciate her father more rather than comparing him to the other kids’ fathers. She understands that Atticus is a moral man and she wants Scout to be the same way. Because of Miss Maudie’s good nature she is a mentor to