To Kill a Mockingbird

In the book, “To Kill A Mockingbird,” Atticus teaches his children the extremely important golden rule. He basically says, “Treat others the way you want to be treated,” as Jesus told us many many years ago. The reason that prompts his words is when Scout comes home from her first day of school. She is complaining about her teacher, Miss Caroline, and Walter Cunningham until he stops her. He is trying to help Scout consider that there might be a reason that nobody can see for way people act the way they do. Wayne Dyer says “You get treated in life the way you teach people to treat.” People may have been taught to treat other people differently than they were treated, and all one can do is try to understand where they are coming from. Atticus hopes his children will learn to treat people with respect all the time no matter what they person is doing to them. His words do have effects on his children because Scout becomes upset at Jem for not talking to her, and she decides to “jump into his skin,” and she backs off. Miss Maudie demonstrates Atticus’s advice of seeing from another’s perspective. First, “she still took a lively and cordial interest in Jem’s and my affairs,” (97) even though she had just lost her house in a fire. When she lost her house she didn’t become sulky and miserable. Instead, she said, “Just think, I’ll have more room for my azaleas.” (97) Also, she doesn’t decide to get angry at the “foot washing baptists,” (59) for telling her that her flowers were a sin. She shows that she doesn’t get upset about the trivial things in life. She looks at the bigger picture and sees that she has her friends to support her.