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In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, when Atticus reacts to Jem's game about Boo Radley, what can be noticed about the way he disciplines his...

The children are caught playing the Boo Radley game by Atticus in Chapter Five. Atticus gives them a lecture about people's right to their own privacy and how the kids should mind their own business. Then he draws an analogy for them by asking how they might feel if he barged into their bedrooms without knocking. By drawing a mental picture for the children to understand, they could then connect how they might feel in...

The children are caught playing the Boo Radley game by Atticus in Chapter Five. Atticus gives them a lecture about people's right to their own privacy and how the kids should mind their own business. Then he draws an analogy for them by asking how they might feel if he barged into their bedrooms without knocking. By drawing a mental picture for the children to understand, they could then connect how they might feel in a similar situation with how they were acting towards their shy neighbor. This way of teaching the children goes back to Atticus's motto and something he said to Scout just a couple of chapters earlier. When Scout was upset about how her first day of school went, Atticus told her the following:



"First of all, . . . if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it" (30).



Atticus uses this advice all throughout the book in different situations. When he lectures the children about playing a game about Boo Radley, he applies this teaching in his analogy. Then he teaches them to remember their manners and not go to someone's house unless they are invited; and, they are not to play that "asinine game" any longer (49). Therefore, what can be noticed by the way he disciplines his children is the way he uses an analogy to teach a lesson about understanding life from other people's perspectives.

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