How Does Atticus Judge Life In To Kill A Mockingbird

As the human race we go through life as a single, independent body, or as a single body with understanding of those around himself that bring a deeper meaning to life. Throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird we see that people are complicated and that we must learn about our lives before we judge them which is introduced by Atticus, seen with Mrs. Dubose, and understood with Boo Radley. The theme was first introduced to Scout by Atticus after Scout tells him that she does not want to go to school anymore because she had a lousy first day and she dislikes her new teacher to which Atticus responds with, “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 …show more content…
We see Scout and Jem failing at using this advice with Mrs. Dubose. Jem and Scout initially fear the woman and do not take the time to understand why she acts the way she does, but instead form opinions on her like when Scout says, “Jem and I hated her. If she was on the porch when we passed, we would be raked by her wrathful gaze, subjected to ruthless interrogation regarding our behavior, and given a melancholy prediction on what we would amount to when we grew up, which was always nothing” (Lee, 1960, p. 132). This quote demonstrates that Jem and Scout had judged Mrs. Dubose by only the blatantly obvious things they could observe about her personality. They did this instead of understanding the complexity of why Mrs. Dubose acted cold and how strong she truly was. We see the truth about Mrs. Dubose and her internal fight which occurs once she passes away and Atticus explains, ”‘Mrs Dubose was a morphine addict,’ Atticus said. “She took it as a pain-killer for years. The doctor put her on …show more content…
She reflects upon the lesson when she says, “Atticus was right. That one time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley’s porch was enough” (Lee, 1960, p. 374). This reflection by Scout shows how she has grown from an innocent girl who had not seen much of the world outside of her small neighborhood in Maycomb, Alabama into a girl that had seen hardships around her and is able to understand that learning about one’s life before judging them is an important key to life. When Scout meets Boo Radley for the first time she finds that he is not the monster that all of the rumors had said he was, but instead he is another person with feelings just like her. She found that he was kind-hearted as he risked himself to save her and Jem, therefore she knew that making assumptions about Boo and his life was wrong. From this moment on Scout knew what Atticus meant in the beginning of the novel about walking around in the skin of someone else to achieve true understanding of