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In To Kill A Mockingbird, what is Atticus's view of "most people"? Cite evidence from book.

On the final page of the book Scout says about Boo Radley,


"Atticus, he was real nice."


To this, Atticus replies,


"Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them."


This comment is representative of the way Atticus treats everyone in the novel and the way he encourages his children to treat others. Atticus is a kind man and he believes that people, at their core, are good and that we should try our best...

On the final page of the book Scout says about Boo Radley,



"Atticus, he was real nice."



To this, Atticus replies,



"Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them."



This comment is representative of the way Atticus treats everyone in the novel and the way he encourages his children to treat others. Atticus is a kind man and he believes that people, at their core, are good and that we should try our best to understand them. In this quote we are reminded of a scene from the beginning of the book where he told Scout that to truly know someone you must walk around in their shoes. Here, he says that most people are nice "when you finally see them," which implies that we don't typically really understand others and we see what we want to or what we assume rather than the real person. We have not really walked in their shoes.


He also believes that people often act badly simply out of ignorance, not because they are evil or terrible people. So when he says that most people are nice, this really seems to reflect the same views he has been showing throughout the book. He presumes best intentions on the parts of others.

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