A Girl's Wisdom

He says: After the trial, Jem is stewing in his juices about what has happened and why. He finally figures it out to his satisfaction and tries to explain it to Scout:

"You know something, Scout? I've got it all figured out, now. I've thought about it a lot lately and I've got it figured out. There's four kinds of folks in the world. There's the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, there's the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negroes."

But Scout is wise beyond her years. She has learned from Atticus:

"Naw, Jem, I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks."

To me, this scene summarizes the moral that Harper Lee was trying to convey to her readers. Black, white, male, female, old, young, and even psychologically or developmentally disabled like Boo; we're all the same underneath: just folks. And we all want and deserve to be treated with respect.

She says: I think you're right Atticus. Lee is obviously hoping to promote tolerance and equality in each and every page of this book. I think the last exchange between Atticus and Scout as he is putting her to bed and she is trying to convince him that she was paying attention to the ghost story book he had been reading further illustrates your point:

"...they all thought it was Stoner's Boy messin' up their clubhouse an' throwin' ink all over it an'...An they chased him 'n' never could catch him 'cause they didn't know what he looked like, an' Atticus, when they finally saw him, why he hadn't done any of those things...Atticus, he was real nice...":

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