In 'to Kill a Mockingbird', Atticus Finch Teaches the Children to Walk in the Shoes of Others. Discuss.

Atticus finch, father of Scout and Jem, right from the start attempted to educate them and inculcate in them moral values like empathy, sympathy and compassion for the human race as a whole. He did this by logically explaining and setting examples for his children. It is this education administered by Atticus that pays off right from an early stage the novel when Jem was able to comfortably step in the shoes of Walter Cunningham, who his sister Scout had gotten into a fight with. ‘Come on home to dinner with us, Walter’ He said. In Maycomb County’s intricate social structure, the Cunninghams were on the poorer side of things. When Walter comes over, Atticus treats and accepts him as an equal- setting an example for his children and showing that there is no class distinction in the Finch home.

In the novel, Atticus Finch has been appointed as the lawyer of a colored man wrongly accused of raping a white woman- during a period of time when racial prejudice was rampant, America in the 1930s. When Scout asked him if he would win the case, Atticus responded, “‘Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win’” With Atticus being Atticus he was determined to fight the racism and prejudice and at the same time view the world from another person’s perspective.

Being brought up in an environment with these beliefs also had great effect on Scout Finch. When Jem, Scout and Dill wrongly enter the backyard of the Radley Place on Dill’s last night in town, they are almost found out. Mr.Nathan Radley appears in the backyard with a shot gun, and the children run. However as they run, Jem rips his pants on the fence. When they are found out, Jem makes an excuse for the missing pants, but goes back later to get them. Scout tried her best to convince Jem not to go- she knows that it would be risky for him to go in the dark once more, especially since Nathan Radley almost shot them the last time. But she puts herself into the...