To Kill a Mockingbird Literary Analysis

In Harper Lee's book To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus tells Scout that "'most people are [real nice], Scout, when you finally see them'" (281). Scout learns this lesson many ways throughout the book such as with Dolphus Raymond who she thinks is an "evil man" because of Jem's description of him (200). But after Dill began to drink some of what the people in the town thinks is whiskey , Dill looks up and says " 'Scout, it's nothing but Coca-Cola. ' "(200).

After learning that she, and the rest of the town's, assumption of what Mr. Raymond is drinking all the time is wrong she decides that he is actually an o. k. person and not an "evil man" as she had previously thought (200). Another person Scout ends up changing her mind about is Boo Radley. In the beginning of the book Dill, Jem, and Scout played a game where Boo stabs Mrs. Radley and they believe that he comes out at night to eat small animals and look through people's windows. Her stereotype of him changed at the end of the book when Boo saves their lives and Scout takes Boo home and realizes, "We had given him nothing, and it made me sad" and, "Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough." (278, 279) When she actually meets Boo she learns that her squirrel-eating, window-peeping image of him is very wrong and that he is actually a nice person. A third person Scout eventually learns is "real nice" is Aunt Alexandra (281).