Essays --

Throughout the Harper Lee’s story of To Kill A Mockingbird characters have looked through other people’s views with varying amounts of success and failure. The characters learn, some better than others, what it is like to look through the eyes of the guilty, the child, the poor, the outcast and the educated. People’s perspective of a situation may be different from another’s; but by trying to see in another person’s point of view, motives for their actions might become visible to an observer. When ignoring the way other people look at situations, a thought or opinion of the other person may be incorrect. Acting on false pretenses, made through not thinking from another person’s point of view, could bring up negative consequences; like prejudice thinking, false accusations and stereotypical thoughts. It is important for these ideas to get across the characters, as well as the reader. Looking through an angle other than a personal one, may be beneficial to figure out another person’s motives. Throughout the case of Mayella Ewell vs. Tom Robinson Atticus peers at what might have motivated Ms. Ewell to accuse Tom of something he did not do. Through this close examination Atticus was able to find motive for Ms.Ewell’s actions. Ms. Ewell sits on the witness stand while Atticus questions her and at the end of his questioning Atticus states â€Å"I say guilt, gentlemen, because it was her guilt that motivated her. She has committed no crime; she has merely broken a rigid and time honored code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with†(203). When Atticus looked through the eyes of Mayella he was able to find that reason to blame Mr. Robinson, that reason was guilt. Atticus could hav... ... Burris Ewell and is taught the hard way on the Maycomb social ladder. Yet Scout also has a bad day; being punished by her teacher for explaining why Walter could not except Ms. Caroline’s money and being yelled at by Calpurnia for making fun of how Walter eats. So when Atticus tells Scout to â€Å"climb into his skin and walk around in it† she does and try’s to look at things from Ms. Caroline’s point of view. Ms. Caroline learned something about Maycomb and if Walter and Scout put their selves into Ms. Caroline’s shoes then they would not have thought that she could learn all of Maycomb’s traditions in one day and that they could not hold her responsible for making mistakes because she has never known better(30). Scout complains about Ms. Caroline to Atticus to which Atticus gives the advice to walk around in the other person’s shoes.