To Kill a Mockingbird--chapters 1-3

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Permalink Reply by The Authentic Socializer 9B on April 4, 2017 at 5:17pm

            I agree with you, Infinite Alshamari because when we are more open-minded, we will have a better understanding of different people who are not similar to us. As stated in the book To Kill a Mockingbird, as soon as Miss Caroline realized that Burris had the “cooties,” she right away told him to go straight home and be bathed. Harper Lee writes “I want you to go home and wash your hair with lye soap” (Lee 35). This quote shows that when Miss Caroline didn’t even stop to think if he had the ability to wash his hair. She just judged him by the way he looks and demanded to wash his hair. Instead, she should have been open-minded by understanding that he may not be able to be clean for his own personal reasons. This is why we shouldn’t judge by the way anyone looks because we may not have understood or seen who they really are. We should always have try to have a good understanding of someone before judging that certain individual.

Permalink Reply by Numia 9C on April 4, 2017 at 7:27pm

         I cannot agree with you more TAS Aldelahmawi! People (not all, but many) are not aware of the solution/finding a solution to connecting all the differences of others and leads to driving people farther and farther apart from each other. Also by connecting with different people, it leads to understanding and development, of the biases within people about the differences that make people who they are. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird written by Harper Lee, explains the extraordinary perspective of Scout -a girl that doesn't understand the things happening around her, making her a watcher around to those who are different than her and makes honest judgement about others. To further reinforce this point, "[Burris] is one of the Ewells, ma'am...whole school's full of 'em. They come the first day every year and then leave. The truant lady gets 'em with the sheriff, but she's give up tryin' to hold 'em."-said by one of the elderly members of Scout's classroom- (Lee 36). This proves that people are a bit open-minded, but many people judge to the negative differences of others. Then, it builds up the biases with all that knowledge that was learnt by that person, and concludes a false statement of that person, and creates a barrier to which that person cannot show his/her true colors. Overall, the novel To Kill A Mockingbird shows that people learn about other people by observing their own point of view, rather than getting closer to that person and being detective of their own true and revealed differences.

                                                                                                             -Numia Alward

Permalink Reply by Bro. Teacher on April 5, 2017 at 12:27pm

I too completely agree with you TAS (The Authentic Socializer).  We really should stop and think before we say things.  I'm sure the teacher--Sister Caroline--didn't mean anything by her comment that Burris needs to go bathe, but looking at him, she might have been able to figure out that perhaps the reason Burris is so dirty is that he cannot bathe--it's just not possible for him.

I tell you, as a teacher, I find myself in these situations all the time.  I tell students to work harder, or to spend more time on something, but I really don't know what's going on at home and what life is like outside of school for the person I'm speaking to.  And occasionally that has gotten me into "trouble" because I haven't worked hard enough to understand the student.  I once told a student that the half hour of work I was giving him should be easy for him to complete.  What I didn't know is that this particular student was the oldest of six other siblings, and his dad was in the hospital after an accident and his mother was always staying at the hospital to help take care of her husband.  This student had to feed and take care of six other people before thinking about himself or taking care of his own work.  For someone like this, thirty minutes a night was thirty minutes he just didn't have.  Now while I don't want to be too hard on myself--for how could I possibly know this was going on?--I still took away from this that if there seems to be trouble with something, there's usually a good reason for it, and the standards I set for myself or others, should not be the standards I set for everyone.  Everyone is a different person, and we should differentiate on a person-by-person basis as much as possible.

Permalink Reply by Mavireck Apples 9c on April 3, 2017 at 5:42am

I think that this piece is great advice because it tells you to go into that person's shoe and don't focus right away onto difference just look for things you have in common. This applies to us to because last time when I went to Detroit I looked at differences and didn't care about the similarities I thought of them as the ones I see on TV, so I need to use that advice becuase next time I go to Detroit I want to make new friends not new enemies.

Permalink Reply by RIKA 9B on April 3, 2017 at 12:01pm

     Atticus tells Scout to see things from the other person's point of view; this is a really good piece of advice. He is telling her that if you put yourself in the other person's shoes, you will figure out that that person has their own circumstances that lead to their actions. When Atticus told Scout this piece of advice she realized that if Walter and she "put [themselves] in [Miss Caroline's] shoes [they'd] have seen it was an honest mistake on her part" (Lee 40). Scout wouldn't have understood all the actions Miss Caroline has done, and would have just went on with her life believing that Miss Caroline hates her. When Scout saw from Miss Caroline's point of view, she understood that Miss Caroline was new and she didn't know the ways of Maycomb. Scout was judging Miss Caroline because what she did was different and strange in Scout's eyes, and Miss Caroline didn't know things that Scout knew from birth. This gap of knowledge could have caused a lot of misunderstandings between the two characters. Although there is still bitter feelings between Scout and Miss Caroline, by looking at Miss Caroline's point of view it prevented a stronger feeling of hate towards her.

      I believe that if people start seeing other people's point of view, they will start to be able to understand and relate to their circumstances. For example, if someone is stealing, he looks like a 'bad' person. However if you have the courage to dig deeper, you will figure out that the person was stealing to feed his family. Maybe the person is uneducated and can't easily find a job, how will he feed his family? Maybe stealing was his only option. If people start to understand the reason, they will probably be able to help him instead of sending him to jail. I think that if people start seeing themselves in the other person's shoes, they will begin to relate to each other. They will realize that maybe they are not so different after all. To clarify, every person has there own circumstances that lead to the actions they choose to make. People need to understand that and stop generalizing things based on what they hear or what one person does. For example terrorists are 'bad' people and when asked if they are similar to them, people deny it completely. But what the human population needs to understand is that people have their own reason for becoming terrorists or robbers or serial killers. You can't just put a  label on them that describes them all as evil and not good people.

Permalink Reply by Infinite 9A on April 3, 2017 at 1:30pm

 I do agree with you, Anonymous, that people do have their own reasons for doing things, and people only reveal to the public what they want us to see - which is why people begin to judge others. It's okay to be curious, but it's best to understand things from the person rather than forming an opinion off of generalizations or stereotypes. As you said, people do have their own personal reasons for doing wrong things, because sometimes good hearts make bad decisions. They might have no other choice so they do things in certain ways - but I believe we should try and help these people instead of having them continue like this - just like the Ewells. Harper Lee - author of To Kill a Mockingbird - states, "In certain circumstances the common folk judiciously allowed them certain privileges by the simple method of becoming blind to some of the Ewells' activities" (Lee 31). I think that ignoring an issue doesn't solve it nor make it go away. So I think the common folk should try and help the Ewells with getting a job and supporting their families, because it's wrong that they can break the law and their children continue on like this. So instead of ignoring what they do, and giving them privileges -  which will only continue on into the future with their kids going about life this way -  they could try and understand and help them. 

Permalink Reply by Cake 9A on April 4, 2017 at 10:51am

I disagree with you when say the common folk should help the Ewells because who says they want help? Lee writes " To get rid of the -er, cooties. You see, Burris, the other children might catch them, and you wouldn't want that, would you?" (Lee 35), but after Miss Caroline said that Burris lashed out at her, even though she had good intentions to help not only Burris, but to keep the other children from catching them. So if Burris would refuse someone's help to getting rid of cooties, what would he do when the common folk, as you said, try to help him?

Permalink Reply by Infinite 9A on April 4, 2017 at 1:22pm

I can see where you are coming from, Cake, that even Burris didn't want help even though he's still a young kid. But this is of course the influence from the parents. The teacher didn't really try and put herself in Burris's spot/ understand him enough - all she told him was to go and wash his hair and it ended at that. If we all just offered a simple piece of advice and expected a response, of course we wouldn't get anywhere. Burris obviously has a temper and he didn't want anyone to tell him what to do or offer him any help. But maybe if someone just like him/his own age would talk to him and actually try to understand his point of view, it would make a change. I think that if it started at the kids and the young Ewells, it would be easier to make a change, because the older Ewells are already set in their ways. But that shouldn't stop the common folk from trying to help them, because what they are doing is affecting their children and it's still wrong. 

Permalink Reply by Cake 9A on April 5, 2017 at 12:56pm

I see where you're coming from Infinite, but the other kids in "To Kill A Mockingbird" are still young, what would they say that can make the Ewells change their ways? But I'd also like to point out that if the kids can help the young Ewell, why can't they take it up to themselves and change their ways by themselves? We have been discussing that we shouldn't keep quiet when someone we respect and is older than us, says something we disagree with, but it just occurred to me that maybe the children are so used to this that some of them don't mind the way that they are living. But of course there are who do mind, but they haven't been doing anything either such as the Cunningham's.

Permalink Reply by Iridescent 9A on April 6, 2017 at 4:35pm

you said it yourself, they are children meaning that they don't know better than to let the Cunninghams be. they havent seen someone help them for them to do it themselves for them to comprhend the idea theat they have the ability to help. But in the same way Miss coraline was "Shamin' him" she obviosuly didnt know but she didnt do anythng to help. Instead she PUNISHES scout which is why kids dont stand up why they grow up with the same stereotypes 

Permalink Reply by Cake 9A on April 7, 2017 at 3:57pm

And that's my exact point, they are only children how would they help a family that have been acting the way they were for three generations, but cannot help change their ways? Meaning the children don't know what to do o how to help, and might not even see a problem with the way Maycomb has become.

Permalink Reply by Mavireck Apples 9c on April 3, 2017 at 1:32pm

I want to go back to when you said if you see someone stealing, you are not going to ask them why are you doing that. Nobody in the entire world would do that. If a robber was at your house you are not going to go ask him why are you doing that but you will call the cops because the biases will create fear and the fear will take over you and not bother asking that person why he/she is doing that

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