In Chapter 3, Scout had a bad day at school. She told Atticus that she doesn’t want to go to school anymore, and that she can stay home so Atticus could teach her. Atticus replied by saying:” 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.”
What Atticus meant by that was that a person can never understand how someone else feels about something, until that person is able to see things in their perspectives and feel empathy towards them. Atticus wants to tell Scout to not say a person’s behavior is wrong just because they seemed wrong, and if she sees Miss Caroline’s idea then she may not find it wrong and even approve them.
Not being able to see things in other people’s perspectives can cause great misunderstandings in both real life and in the story. For example in chapter 3, when Walter Cunningham said that he forgot his lunch, Miss Caroline gave him money to buy them, but everyone else knows that Walter didn’t forget his lunch, he didn’t have any. Miss Caroline couldn’t understand Scout’s explanation of how Walter is one of the Cunningham because she is new in town. If Scout understands how Miss Caroline cannot learn everything about the town in one day then she would make her explanation more clearer and keep out the trouble.
What Atticus meant by that was that a person can never understand how someone else feels about something, until that person is able to see things in their perspectives and feel empathy towards them. Atticus wants to tell Scout to not say a person’s behavior is wrong just because they seemed wrong, and if she sees Miss Caroline’s idea then she may not find it wrong and even approve them.
Not being able to see things in other people’s perspectives can cause great misunderstandings in both real life and in the story. For example in chapter 3, when Walter Cunningham said that he forgot his lunch, Miss Caroline gave him money to buy them, but everyone else knows that Walter didn’t forget his lunch, he didn’t have any. Miss Caroline couldn’t understand Scout’s explanation of how Walter is one of the Cunningham because she is new in town. If Scout understands how Miss Caroline cannot learn everything about the town in one day then she would make her explanation more clearer and keep out the trouble.