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In Chapter 3 of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch tells Scout, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from...

On the day of Tom Robinson's trial in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout is one of the child characters who succeeds the least in being able to put herself in someone else's shoes; however, by the end of the novel, her perspective and understanding have changed significantly. On the day of the trial, Scout gets separated from Dill and Jem as they make their way into the courthouse. She finds herself in the middle of what Maycomb calls the "Idlers' Club," which is a group of elderly men "who had spent their lives doing nothing and passed their twilight days doing same on pine benches" around the town square (Ch. 16). Since they are frequenters of the town square, they are also aware of every trial that takes place in Maycomb and frequent spectators of the courtroom. On the day of the trial, Scout overhears members of the Idlers' Club making comments about her father that she uses to try to better understand why her father subjected himself and his family to so much ridicule by taking Tom Robinson's case.

To Scout, the most enlightening comment made by a member of the Idlers' Club is the following:



Lemme tell you something' now, Billy, ... you know the court appointed him to defend this nigger. (Ch. 16)



Scout considers this to be enlightening news because she feels it helps explain why Atticus took the case; as Scout phrases it, "Atticus had to, whether he wanted to or not." She further reflects that if she and Jem had known Atticus had to take the case all along, they "could have used it many times in defending [Atticus] and [themselves]." Hence, in learning that Atticus took the case because Judge Taylor commanded him to, Scout thinks that she is putting herself in Atticus's shoes in order to better understand the ordeals they have had to go through. However, being young, she fails to fully put herself in Atticus's shoes because she fails to understand Atticus's moral obligation to take the case. As Atticus explains to his brother earlier in Chapter 9, though he would have liked to go through life without having to take a case of this kind, he knows he is morally obligated to defend Tom Robinson for several reasons: (1) it is his job as a defense lawyer to give the best defense possible since all brought to trial need to be considered innocent until proven guilty; (2) no concrete evidence exists in the case to prove Robinson's guilt; and (3) he knows through Calpurnia that the Robinsons are people of admirable character. Hence, though Scout tries to put herself in her father's shoes on the day of the trial, she ultimately fails because she is still too young to reach deeper moral understandings.

In contrast to Scout, Dill is the child character who is the most successful at putting himself in another person's shoes, specifically the shoes of Tom Robinson. During Robinson's cross-examination by prosecuting attorney Mr. Gilmer, Scout must escort Dill outside the courthouse because he begins crying. Once outside, Dill explains to Scout that he is crying because he couldn't stand hearing "that old Mr. Gilmer doin' [Robinson] thataway, talking so hateful to him--" (Ch. 19). In other words, Dill recognizes that Mr. Gilmer is being disrespectful to Robinson because, due to Mr. Gilmer's racial prejudices, Mr. Gilmer has already assumed Robinson is guilty despite evidence to the contrary. Yet, Dill is able to place himself in Robinson's shoes enough to understand that Robinson, as well as all people, deserves respect. Dill expresses his understanding in his reply to Scout's comment that Robinson is "just a Negro":



I don't care one speck. It ain't right, somehow it ain't right to do 'em that way. Hasn't anybody got any business talkin' like that--it just makes me sick. (Ch. 19)



Hence, as we can see, some characters are more successful than others at putting themselves in other people's shoes.

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