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To Kill A Mockingbird Essay

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“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”. Discuss this quote from Atticus in relation to 3 characters from the novel. In the third chapter of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird Atticus proclaims that “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” (P. 39). By including this statement Lee presents to us the idea of empathy and that, in the words of author Madeleine L’Engle in her book A Wrinkle in Time, ‘people are more than just the way they look’. Applying this concept to some of Lee’s characters in the book can teach us invaluable …show more content…

When Atticus asks Mayella ‘who are your friends?’ (p.245) she is perplexed by the question demonstrating to us how she must be ‘the loneliest person in the world’ (p. 256). Furthermore, Lee clearly explains to us she is accustomed to being treated poorly as when Atticus refers to her as ‘ma’am’ and speaks to her politely she believes initially that he is ‘mockin’ me’ (p.243). Reflecting on how Mayella is trapped in her improvised, friendless state with nobody who respects her, we realise it would not have been difficult for her to become fixated on and fantasise about Tom Robinson, as he ‘was probably the only person who was ever decent to her’ (p.257). We are also able to understand why she lies about Tom raping her during the trial when we take into consideration that Mayella is living in fear of what her drunk and abusive father, Bob Ewell, would do to her if she was truthful. As she has already been ‘beaten savagely’ (p.272) and possibly raped by her father, after she ‘kissed a black man’ (p.272), her trepidation is unsurprising. By climbing into Mayella’s skin and walking around in it we see Lee is helping us to learn the importance of considering people’s circumstances before judging their actions. From the immature and shallow perspective of Scout, Mrs Dubose gives us the impression of being a bitter, racist, elderly woman. Although, if we were to closely examine her struggles we would discover she is extremely courageous and in need of our kindness. Mrs

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