Essay #3
In Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus teaches Scout to consider things from other people's point of view. He told her this because Scout was being frustrated with conflicts with her teacher, Miss Caroline.
Miss Caroline continued to unintentionally insult Scout and the rest of the class, but was unaware of it. When Atticus said, "The simple trick for getting along with all kinds of folks is to consider things from their point of view, " he tried to calm Scout down and show her that Miss Caroline saw things differently than her. It is a method that is very useful and is used by many people to solve problems. Even I have used this method of stepping into other people's shoes once.
I have always had a habit of ignoring my parents orders or disobeying them. I never thought how hard it was for them to keep order in the house much less with me disobeying them. I ended up stepping in their shoes when I spent the night at one of my friend's houses. We decide to mess around and do a little roughhousing and wrestling in his room. It was me, my friend and his little brother going at it inside his room, bodies were flying and people were in headlocks. It was fun until my friend's little brother accidentally kneed my friend in the face.
It was purely unintentional, but it angered my friend greatly. My friend immediately got up and tackled his little brother. They started to fight inside the room, but not just roughhousing, it was a full on brawl. They continued to pummel each other with their fists and kicked wildly in the air. I was a spectator to this and felt I had to stop this before they broke each others ribs.
I started to yell out them to stop, but to no avail. When I looked and saw what I was doing, trying to control a situation, I felt like my parents. I said in my mind, "My parents have seen this scene all to many times with me and my brother, and here I am trying to stop this." I suddenly realized how hectic and hard it is to stop or control something that has gotten out of hand. Although I probably didn't solve it like my parents would have, I at least tried to. I eventually got mad and just pulled them of each other, stopping the fight.
A while after the incident I thought about what I did. I discovered the feelings my parents have to go through to handle me and my siblings. I knew how frustrated they must have felt when me or my brother goes and ignores them or disobeys them. I felt the anger and frustration when I couldn't control the fight. I realized that my parents have to go through that on almost a daily basis, and it made me understand my parents better. I now have a deeper respect for my parents and understand their actions better.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus teaches Scout a very important lesson in life. One that is used by many people including myself. Stepping into another persons shoes gives the ability to understand that person better and helps to solve problems. I now have a greater respect for my parents because of it, and through it Scout could deal with her Miss Caroline a little better.
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