Who Is Miss Caroline's Teeth In To Kill A Mockingbird

A person does not really understand someone until he or she walks in his or her shoes. Scout learns through encounters with several people. The first person’s shoes that Scout steps in is Miss Caroline’s. When Scout first meet Miss Caroline, she thought of her new teacher as terse and not understanding. The first event that made Scout think this is when Miss Caroline prohibited her to read with her father any longer. Miss Caroline talk her to tell Atticus to stop teaching her to read because she wants Scout to learn to read in school with a fresh mind. Another time that fueled Scouts perception of Miss Caroline is when she tried to explain to Miss Caroline why Walter Cunningham would not take the money to buy lunch. Miss Caroline was getting

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from their point of view-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” (p.30) The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee includes a plethora of essential themes that make one think deeply. The story takes place in the 1930’s when segregation tensions were high. The narrative is told through the eyes of a young girl, Jean Louise (Scout) Finch. Scout’s father, Atticus is a lawyer fighting a case for an African American man named Tom Robinson. Throughout the novel, both Scout and her older brother Jeremy (Jem) Finch learn many life lessons that are crucial for all children to learn about. One fundamental lesson learned by the children, is the lesson of having empathy.

Dubose. Jem and Scout hated Mrs. Dubose, she was always disrespectful when they passed by her house. She would yell at them about many different things like their behavior, their father, what they would be when they grew up, them walking to town, and them not having their mother around anymore. Most of her comments were about how Atticus was defending a man of color in court. One day Jem went mad, he grabbed Scout’s baton and ran into the front yard and cut the tops off every camellia bush in sight, he didn't begin to calm down until the ground has green buds and leaves everywhere. Once he was finished trashing Mrs. Dubose’ yard he snapped the baton in half, threw it down, when Scout saw she started screaming. Jem pulled her hair, and kicked her down. When Atticus got home he was disappointed that Jem would do something like that, he told him to go to Mrs. Dubose’ house and talk to her. When Jem came back he said he cleaned for her, said sorry, and said that he would help them grow back. Mrs. Dubose told Jem to come to her house everyday after school and on Saturdays and read to her out loud for two hours for a whole month. On the first day they weren't there for a long time because about half way through it was time for Mrs. Dubose’s medicine, Jessie kicked them out because she had to get the

Throughout this book, Atticus tells Scout and Jem that they should walk around in other people’s shoes for a bit, and maybe they can understand that person a little better. “‘First of all,’ he said, ‘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 […] until you climb into his skin and walk around in it’” (85-87). Atticus says this to Scout after Scout

Jean Louise Finch, or otherwise known as Scout, is Atticus’s daughter who Atticus helps develop. In the scene where Scout doesn’t want to go to school because her new teacher is mean, Atticus says “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” (Lee 39). He tells Scout to pretend that she was in her teacher’s place. Her teacher is new and doesn’t know what the Maycomb ways so they can’t expect her to behave the same as the rest of the town. Scout keeps this in mind when her brother is being moody. “I tried to climb into Jem 's skin and walk around in it” (77). In this scene Scout gives Jem his space because if she had gone through what Jem had went through, she would have wanted to be alone. Then, in the

Atticus’s son, Jem, finds trouble with Mrs. Dubose; this caused a change in her character. Jem becomes angry with Mrs. Dubose because of her comments about Atticus to him and Scout; out of anger Jem “cut the tops off every camellia bush Mrs. Dubose owned, until the ground was littered with green buds and leaves” (103). When Atticus became aware of Jem’s actions he sent him down the street to apologize to Mrs. Dubose for what he had done. As a punishment, Mrs. Dubose asked that Jem to come to her home and read to her every day for a month. As asked Jem did bringing Scout along each day. After a month had went by Jem was asked to continue coming to read to her. Jem was not a fan of the idea but he did not want to disappoint Atticus so he did as he told him. Later, after Mrs. Dubose passes away, Jem is informed of why the reading was important to Mrs. Dubose. She had a morphine addiction and reading to her was helping her to break her habit. Jem

From her front porch, Jem just sees her as a bitter old lady however, once he gets close up to her he realizes what bad condition she is in and how frail she is. The fact that Jem does not know about Mrs. Dubose’s illness also shows her courage because she is fighting her horrible illness without the support of her community. After Mrs. Dubose dies, Atticus reveals that Mrs. Dubose wanted to die free and that she is the bravest person he has ever known. During a conversation between Atticus and Jem, Atticus says “I wanted you to see what real courage is... It’s when you know you’re licked but you begin anyway...

Understanding others can be difficult depending on how you are raised. Unfortunately not everyone is understanding of others. This is a lesson Scout is taught through most of the book, To Kill a Mockingbird. Throughout this novel Scout changes from curious to understanding, due to learning that you don’t truly know a man will you walk in their shoes.

    In chapter 31 Scout is realizing that the rumor about Boo and how everybody described him wasn’t as she imagined. The novel states “When they finally saw him, why he hadn’t done any of those things...Atticus he was real nice...His hands were underneath my chin, pulling up the cover, tucking it around me. Most people are Scout, when you finally see them” (Lee 323). In other words people shouldn’t believe what other people say about a person until you have met them.  After Scout put aside those things, she finally saw and got to know him for who he really was, she considered him as a heart kinded man. This is important because  if you do believe what people say you might miss out on the opportunity to make a new friend or role model because you don’t understand that person. In addition,  in chapter 3 Scout’s father is explaining how to along with others better by  considering their point of view.  The text states “First of all,” he said if you 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...until you climb into their skin and walk around in it”(Lee 39). In other words, it isn’t until you truly put yourself in someone else’s position that you will be able to understand what that person has been going though. This illustrates the importance of considering others perspectives and a willingness to be open minded about their

In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, the main characters Scout and Jem, embark upon a three year journey of moral development in which they gain wisdom and understanding, allowing them to mature. In the book, they are taught by their father, Atticus, to be good, moral people. Atticus does this because he does not want his children to be instilled with the racist beliefs of Maycomb. Scout and Jem deal with the townspeople’s backlash against their father, who defends an african-american, Tom Robinson, in court, and they confront Mr. Arthur ”Boo” Radley, who they believe to be a monster. Even though Scout and Jem experience many of the same pivotal moments, the ways they deal with, cope, and understand their maturation differs greatly.

Atticus says “The main one is, if I didn’t I couldn’t hold my head up in town, I couldn’t represent this country in the legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem no to something again” (100). Atticus is telling Scout why he has to take the case of Tom Robinson. This quote shows Atticus was a nice man that wanted to protect a black man from being falsely accused of a crime he didn’t commit. As the story continues, Atticus goes on and defends Tom and makes Bob Ewell look like a fool. Scout explains “Mr.Bob Ewell stopped Atticus on the post office corner, spat in his face, and told him he’d get him if it took the rest of his life” (290). Bob Ewell is angry at Atticus for humiliating him in court and defending a black man against him. This quote shows Bob was so angry at Atticus that he tried to kill his children Jem and

Scout Finch grows emotionally throughout the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, as she learns about the differences in the world and the people around her with the help of her friends and family. Her father was always telling her to “climb into [someone else’s] skin and walk around in it,” but she didn't fully understand what it meant until the end of the novel when she is standing on the Radley porch (33). “Just standing on the

Atticus says this to Jem so he can understand how Mrs. Dubose feels and so he can see her courage. This novel teaches people that if you put yourself into others shoes you feel what they

She understands that Boo does not want attention, thus she knows what he is going through and that’s what making a bond between these two; a new friendship. Much earlier in the novel, Scout is really irritated that Mrs. Caroline doesn’t know anything about Maycomb, and when Scout is trying to help her she is getting mad at Scout. Then she understands that she needs to know how can a person fit into a completely different setting in a short amount of time. “Atticus said I had learned many things today, and Miss Caroline had learned several things herself. She had learned not to hand something to a Cunningham, for one thing, but if Walter and I had put ourselves in her shoes we’d have seen it was an honest mistake on her part. We could not expect her to learn all Maycomb’s ways in one day, and we could not hold her responsible when she knew no better” (39-40). Scout also realizes that the teacher was in Maycomb for a day, and she couldn't possibly know all the people, beliefs, their ways, etc. Scout also realizes that the way she explains the Maycomb’s ways to Ms. Caroline, she made the teacher look stupid because as their teacher she is supposed to know everything, and she is not supposed to get schooled by an 8 year

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.” Scout goes through many difficult experiences where she starts to understand judgement. She uses these experiences to develop her own opinions of the people she meets. Throughout the story, Scout evolves from a young naive girl to a girl with a better understanding of the world. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the external conflict between Scout and Miss Caroline, the symbol of Tom Robinson, and the motif of Boo Radley to reveal three coming-of-age scenes where Scout learns to try to understand others based on what one believes, not what others think.