Examples Of Getting Into Someone Else's Shoes In To Kill A Mockingbird

The motif of getting into someone else’s shoes is represented throughout To Kill A Mockingbird as the children in the novel struggle to understand each other and their world. Scout, Dill, and Jem try to use these messages of compassion in their world, but it doesn’t make any affect and they constantly see people abusing others because of prejudice. These messages target readers in the 1960’s and today, because we witness the same abuse of innocent people and understand that these actions are wrong, yet no one strives for change and the horrors continue. While Lee builds the idea of getting into someone else’s shoes, the perspective of children and subplots throughout the novel highlight that without acting on new beliefs and applying forgiveness, prejudice will pass onto the next generation.

Throughout the subplots of the novel, readers are shown that the townspeopleare presented with opportunities to make a difference, but they shy away from the responsibility instead. In the subplot of Tim Johnson, the townspeople see the diseased dog threatening to infect the town but they wait for Atticus to come shoot it. Scout observes the silent street, and she says, “Nothing is more deadly than a deserted, waiting street. The trees were still, the mockingbirds were silent, the carpenters at Miss Maudie’s house had vanished” (Lee 125). Tim Johnson symbolizes the prejudice that spreads through generations, and in these circumstances people passed the responsibility to others. This apathy that is shown is where the danger lies in a deserted, waiting street. Even the innocent mockingbirds were silent, showing that even individuals who recognized the injustice didn’t have enough power or motivation to make a difference on their own. Lee shows readers the irony in getting into someone else shoes, because the fear and pity surrounding Tim Johnson did nothing to