An individual’s perspective is the building block of their beliefs and values. Harper Lee’s book To Kill A Mockingbird demonstrates the idea that false beliefs are often the result of prejudice, and that life experiences allow an individual to form his own opinions and his own belief system. This is portrayed through the character development of the three children in the novel, Scout, Jem and Dill. The protagonist Scout most evidently supports this thesis. In the beginning of the novel, she does not think much about Boo Radley other than the fabricated idea that he is a malevolent ghost of legend trapped in the Radley House. However, towards the middle onwards of the novel when she comes face to face with Boo, she starts to perceive him as a sentient human being, even when her friend Dill asked her to have a poke at Boo, She replied to Dill, “Dill asked if I’d like to have a poke at Boo Radley. I said I didn’t think it’d be …show more content…
“Nothin’, just sittin’ and readin’-but they didn’t want me with ‘em.” (Lee, Page 190). His situation made him sensitive to the sight of neglect towards others. At court when Atticus was defending Tom Robinson who was accused of rape. The prosecutor, Mr. Gilmer was questioning Tom in a hateful way. Dill notices this and starts sobbing and tells his feelings regarding Mr. Gilmer’s hateful tone. “That old Mr. Gilmer doin’ him thataway, talking so hateful to him-” (Lee, Page 265). He has the perspective that of a neglected child, which makes him not want to see other people neglected. He believes that all men should be treated with respect. “I don’t care one speck. It ain’t right, somehow it ain’t right to do ‘em that way. Hasn’t anybody got any business talkin’ like that-it just makes me sick.” (Lee, Page
Perspectives can change beliefs in many ways. In Harper Lee’s novel ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, Bob Ewell hears and sees Atticus defending Tom Robinson who is black, therefore, he believes Atticus ‘loves niggers’. Jem, Scout, and Dill have never seen Boo Radley come out at day and they hear rumors that Boo only comes out at night. People believe rumors and their perspectives until they get the truth and change their beliefs.
Understanding perspective is essential to understanding people. Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird presents this idea in multiple passages of her writing. It can be seen in the rough, unknown troubles that people face despite their wrongful actions. As well as the rumours that are untrue and give complete false impressions of people. Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird uses these topics to illustrate the dangers of judging others before getting to know them.
Boo Radley is portrayed as a crazy maniac due to the rumors spread about him and a trial he underwent as a teenager.(Scout) "So Jem received most of his information from Miss Stephanie Crawford, a neighborhood scold, who said she knew the whole thing. According to Miss Stephanie, Boo was sitting in the livingroom cutting some items from 'The Maycomb Tribune' to paste in his scrapbook. His father entered the room. As Mr. Radley passed by, Boo drove the scissors into his parent’s leg, pulled them out, wiped them on his pants, and resumed his activities."(pg 11)Scout and Jem look upon him with fear and suspicion from the stories that surround them from the time they were children. She gradually becomes aware that Boo is just lonely and wants
Scout, in the book To Kill a Mockingbird, was raised by Atticus in a small county in Alabama. Her father taught her to treat everyone equally no matter who they are or who they are said to be; the town was less accepting than that. Most of Maycomb County looked at Boo Radley as someone to be avoided because he was thought to be different and was considered to be a forbidding man who never left his home. The way the town looked at Boo gave Scout that impression she has at the beginning of the story, and it’s the reason Scout is scared of him. Atticus, on the other hand, thought it ridiculous that Scout was so frightened of a man just because of the rumors she had heard about him.
On page 10 scout describes boo and what she thinks about Boo and says “ inside the house lived a malevolent phantom. People said he went out a night when the moon was down , and peeped in windows.” Scout was basically telling us basic town rumors about Mr.Boo Radley. This proves my thesis because people were saying all these things, making them up and don’t even know him. But , on page 362 ; Little Scout describes seeing him from her thoughts she narrates : “His lip parted into a timid smile and our neighbor’s image blurred with my svaden tears ‘ Hey Boo ‘ I said. At this time scout was realizing that Boo Radley saved her and Jem. This quote proves my thesis because everyone thought this man was a crazy monster and he saved two children
Boo Radley hates to create trouble, so he remains inside and lacks vitamin D causing him to be as white as a ghost. "I think I’m beginning to understand why Boo Radley’s stayed shut up in the house all this time… it’s because he wants to stay inside.” (page 259) The quote explains how Boo chooses to not interact with the outside world and not get in anyone’s business. The community speaks about Boo a lot and depicts him to be a juvenile delinquent. “Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks, he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch…” (page 14) Here Boo is characterized to be a wild animal and a monster even though there is no significant evidence to support Jem’s claim because of society’s influence Scout accepted it as being true. Boo in all these circumstances shows how he genuinely is a
Scout’s original belief that Boo Radley was someone to be feared was formed from the untrue stories told to her, not Boo’s actions. In the beginning of the novel, Scout’s brother Jem describes Boo as an ominous figure that stalks through the neighbourhood at night with a scar on his face and yellow, rotten teeth. He was the monster whose hands were bloodstained due to his meals of raw Cats and Squirrels. These falsehoods inspire fear in Scout, and lead her to believe that Boo Radley is someone that she should be afraid of. To her he is a scary story: the monster in the plays that she performs with her friends. She is unable to see him as a regular person because he isn’t presented to her as one. As the stories
Many see the glass half empty. Others see it half full. A certain viewpoint makes people who they are. A human's perspective provokes particular beliefs and thoughts that run through our mind like millions of tiny termites. Throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird authored by Harper Lee, the Finches, Ewells and Robinsons all view the world in a different manner. For Jem Finch, his beliefs are constantly being changed by his environment, surroundings, and people around him. Jem’s early antics with Boo, his attendance at the African-American church, and witness of the trial have one thing in common. All three change Jem’s beliefs from childish to thoughtful!
The world is hard to see from another perspective than just our own. People see and feel what happens in their lives. When Scout sees the world, she sees it in black or white. She has never been taught to look at the world from a grey perspective. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout is taught many lessons, and she learns much about the world outside of her own.
Coming-of-age does not just involve cakes, parties, and grandparents, it is something much more exciting than that. Coming-of-age is the time when children gain new perspectives that will forever change their life. These perspectives may come from a great teacher, a mission trip, or even a disease. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is an excellent example of gaining perspectives. To Kill a Mockingbird is not only an intense book about a young girl’s adventure, but it also has a deeply philosophical meaning. David Dobb’s “Beautiful Brains” is also a good example of how coming-of-age involves gaining new perspectives. “Beautiful Brains” explains the science behind why coming-of-age involves gaining new perspectives. To Kill a Mockingbird’s
Page by page I develop a new understanding for life and perspective. Reading just a few pages of To Kill a Mockingbird opened up so many thoughts and questions. Learning to have a sympathetic perspective when noticing difference is a sensitive topic to be focused on. "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". Scout is a girl with intelligence and extraordinary knowledge for a six year old, but she has a lot more to learn about the human race. "Our battles were epic and one-sided. Calpurnia always won, mainly because Atticus always took her side". Calpurnia was her African American nanny and Atticus probably
I continue to experience one of the most sweltering summers ever. Jem now had a further anger than he did when he broke his arm. With football just around the corner, he couldn't have been more sure that he would not even be able to play. Since he now had a broken leg, he knew he couldn't even punt or kick for the team. But this ordeal would be omitted on the grounds that his injury would heal. Today’s weather was as hot as a sauna, no one was outside or could possibly go outside. Sitting in the living room with Jem, looking out the window, my brother and I observed the strangest sight. On the street, we examined a man walk out of the Radley house. “Who do you reckon that is?” asked Jem. “I don’t know.” I replied. A peculiar element about the man was that he wore all black.
Boo is a very important character in the book, in fact, the novel opens with Scout and her interactions with Boo and is closed by it too. Scout learns about Boo though the gossip passed on through neighbors in the community. The stories are scary and many out of context, however, Scout doesn’t seem to notice this till after the trial. At the beginning of the book she plays a game that involves Boo, and she tries to torment him into coming out. When Scout describes Boo Radley she says, "People said 'Boo' Radley went out at night and peeped in people’s windows. That he breathed on flowers and they froze instantly. They said he committed little crimes in the night but not one ever saw him." This shows that Scout sees Boo as an object of fascination instead of a human being. She does not acknowledge that he has emotions or feelings, she just views him as a monster who does horrible things to people. Furthermore, we can learn that Boo is not a very loved or respected figure in the community due to his strange way of living. As the trial takes place Scout matures and her level of complex thinking increases, but it is not until October 24th that we see how her perception of Boo changes since in the trial she saw how badly they treated Tom Robinson and she directly connected it to Boo “I hugged him and said, “Yes, sir. Mr. Tate was right, it’d be sort of
Jem and Scout saw Boo Radley as a frightening man who was a childish superstition based off of the rumors from the town. As the children grew up the stories about Boo Radley caused them to become more fascinated than frightened by Boo. The Radley house intrigued them to the point where they snuck into the backyard to try to make Boo leave his house but that resulted in the children thinking that every sound they heard was Boo coming for revenge. In the first chapters, Jem describes how they pictured Boo, which was, “…about six and a half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch that’s why his hands were bloodstained…”. Logically it is understood just by Jem’s description that the children had no relationship with Boo Radley other than
Maycomb… a small town, but with a huge amount of different perspectives. Depending on their perspective, their view on the world around them can either be favourable or atrocious. Harper Lee shows perspective through the characters in her novel: To Kill A Mockingbird, she shows different perspectives through the lives of the citizens of Maycomb County, one of whom being Atticus Finch. Atticus Finch is the down-to-earth, well-mannered father of Jeremy ”Jem” Finch and Jean Louise “Scout” Finch. He shows us a level-headed perspective on his surroundings, therefore making him the symbol for morality and reason in this story.