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Timmary Main
Mrs. Tallardy
English 121
27 October 2016
How Perspective Works
Perspective is a complex yet unsteady concept. There is not one perspective about the
world that every single habitant has. Perspective and the shift of perspective is shown
undoubtedly in Harper Lees To Kill A Mockingbird. Published in 1960, the story tells the tale of
Two siblings; Scout and Jem Finch, along with their father Atticus and many other characters
that come up in their small town of Maycomb Alabama. The novel is told through Scout Finch's
eyes, starting when she was just a six year old little girl and ending when she was a slightly more
mature eight year old little girl. Lee is said to have reflected her own life as a child in the novel.
To
Kill a Mockingbird shows how some characters perspectives change, but not many others.
There are so many things that can affect ones perspective on the world around them, and it
doesnt just affect how they think; it affects everything about that person and how they live.
Every part of a persons life affects their perspective on the world. Things that affect
someones perspective could be (but are not limited to) health, family, relationships, location,
and events faced (no matter the size). The way in which these events affect a persons outlook
depends on the type what they are. For instance, going to a third world country and seeing the
suffering happening could break someones heart immensely but at the same time make them
appreciate the life they live. World traveler and blogger Drew Binsky said, I thought it was
normal to have a shiny passport, a college degree and countless opportunities for my future. I

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believed that this lifestyle was standard because thats all I knew given my surroundings and
culture in the USA. This was his perspective on life because of where he lived, the opportunities
he was given, and how he was raised. Binsky goes on to claim, Its almost like a light bulb
switched on in my head the moment I arrived in the lands of India, Cambodia and Myanmar. I
never truly understood what the word poverty meant until I took a walking tour inside the
biggest slum in Asia called Dharavi in Mumbai, or trekked across Myanmar or helped make
traditional food in the villages of Moldova his perspective then changed drastically. He states in
his blog; going from saying that the world is a land of opportunity to then seeing the poverty in
third world countries and truly understanding how deprived and un opportunistic other parts of
the world are. This was the spark that led Binsky to start travelling and volunteering all over the
world. This is just one example on how the location and events of someones life affects their
perception of the world. Furthermore, relationships (romantic or not) can affect one's perspective
depending on the nature, events faced between the people in the relationship and whether it was
negative or positive. A negative or abusive relationship could affect someone badly enough so
that they get to the point of feeling as though no one loves them, or that relationships always go
bad. For example Jessica Dentith writes in her article This Is How My Emotionally Abusive
Relationship Changed Me, Time will pass, but the damage remains as I carry your words on
my back like a weight I cannot free myself from I was completely lost and consumed by this
unhealthy state of living that I forgot what it was like to be happy. I began to mistake this
unstable environment where our relationship thrived as loving and caring, even though it was the
farthest thing from it. Dentiths View on love was so beyond deformed through this that it
became normal love to her. Anyone from the outside could see how horrendous this was but

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she was stuck in the middle, confused and hurt. Overall, all events faced through someones
lifetime affects the way they live and act. In such ways as what they do with their life or how
they view life itself.
Location, family life, relationships, and situations change perspective every single day in
real life but also in novels such as Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. In this novel the
perspective the Finches have differs a bit more than everyone else in their small town in
Maycomb, Alabama. The book is set in a southern state in the 1930s. At this time, African
Americans were thought of as disgusting, lower than human objects that deserve no respect.
Although this is the general stereotype, the Finches think differently. They have a African
American maid/nanny Calpurnia, who works for them but is treated with respect, and almost
treated like part of the family by Mr. Atticus Finch and his children. Mr. Finch is a well
respected man in his small town, and is a successful lawyer. When the trial comes up of a black
man accused of rape, Atticus accepts to defend him in his trial, seeing his innocence. In the
closing argument of Toms trial, Atticus states, this case should never have come to trial...The
state has not produced one iota of medical evidence that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with
ever took place This tells you that Atticus knows if people just looked at the evidence, that the
trial would not exist because they would see that what the persecution is accusing Tom of never
really happened. When Atticus accepted to take on this case, the people of the town, that usually
respect and admire Atticus start to disrespect him in such ways as calling a nigger lover. When
in reality, he just doesn't see how the color of someone's skin can depict them like the other
people in his town do. Atticus looks for reasonable evidence whereas the rest of the townspeople
jump to conclusions because of their perspective on the African American race.

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Every single person on this Earth has a changing and separate perspective on life and the
way it should be lived. For example, Atticus Finch believes that the character of someone shows
who they are, not the color of their skin like Bob Ewell thinks in the novel. Furthermore,
negative relationships and experiences can change you for better or worse depending on how you
think about them. Some perspectives may be similar, but no two seperate people lead the same
exact life, therefore no two people could possibly view situations the exact same way. Different
variables play into what perspective someone has, and the way they choose to live, but nothing
can be predicted or stay the same throughout their whole life.