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What is tolerance and how does it affect people today? Tolerance is accepting people for who they are. The way tolerance effects people today is because they misjudge people and with tolerance they find a way to keep it inside them. Also some people misjudge others by their looks and actions. For example in the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harpe Lee, Scout and her brother Jem, they think that “Boo” is a weird looking guy and that he has some issues in his life. After all that they realize that “Boo” only wanted their friendship and that he was very lonely. If Scout and Jem would have never found out the truth of “Boo” they would have missed out on a lot, like his friendship and his kindness. Tolerance just affects people in many different ways.

Scout the unreliable narrator shows tolerance when she judges the people she doesn’t even know. For example “Boo” she thought he was evil and that he was a bad person. Also she didn’t know her father Atticus was defending a negroe. When she found out she had to live with it and put up with all the people in Maycomb that were against her father defending a black man. Using Scout showed tolerance because in the beginning of the story she was a little prejudice herself. By misjudging “Boo” she learned more then she thought. “He was nearly fifty; When Jem and I asked him why he was so old, he said he started late, which we felt reflected upon his abilities and maddiness”. Scout always felt her father was a lot older then other children’s fathers. The age Atticus lead had made him not do as much as the other fathers. Until later on in the story they found out Atticus was known in town for many things, for example; he was the best checker player in town, he also had a pretty good aim when it came to shooting things. The children learned that although her father was old they didn’t have to judge him.

Mrs. Dubose is a mean old lady that lives in the same neighborhood as Scout and her family. Tolerance is shown in this character because of her attitude towards the Finch family. For example when the kids would walk by her house she would call them names including their father. “Yes indeed what has this world come to when a Finch goes against his own raising? I tell you!” this shows how much Mrs. Dubose is against Negroes and the fact that Atticus is defending one. She was suffering herself. “She was sick for a long time. Son didn’t you know what her fits were? Mrs. Dubose was a morphine addict.” She took morphine as a pain killer for years. The doctor put her on it she spent all her years on morphine. Mrs. Dubose had her reasons of being so rude to the kids. Which Jem and Scout didn’t understand until they got older and as the story grew along with them.

Atticus shows tolerance in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird because he is to defend a black man weather or not he wants to. If he doesn’t he is no longer able to keep his head up in Maycomb. For example “You never really know a person until you stand in their shoes and walk around in them.” In other words he meant to say that you shouldn’t judge people until you’ve been through what they’ve been through. “It’s when you know your liked when you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what you rarely win but sometimes you do”. This means there are possibilities of Atticus losing this trial against the black man but there will always be other opportunities and also you can win if you’re lucky. So it’s better to try then not to do anything about it. Either way you feel good of what you have achieved.

I think that tolerance is accepting people for who they are. Not what they do or what they are known for. For example, some people grow up in an environment with prejudice people, and are forced to grow up with the same opinion. I think people can make their own decisions weather they are prejudice or not. Everyone is tolerant in a way if they don’t notice it. The way this affects people today is that you shouldn’t judge anyone for no reason. Tolerance helps to keep your thoughts with in you and still think different from other people