Empathy In To Kill A Mockingbird

Scout does not like all of the prejudices in the town, and world, all shows a lot of empathy for how young she is in this quote, “I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks,” (304) Atticus, Scout, and minor characters show the importance of empathy. Atticus always thinks about how people feel, scout shows empathy throughout the novel, especially at the end, and some minor characters show some empathy. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee demonstrates the importance of empathy.

In conclusion, To Kill A Mockingbird has many examples of how characters show empathy to other characters. In this novel, one of the main themes or lessons Lee tries to teach the reader is empathy for others. To judge a person, you must walk in his “shoes” or “skin”. Throughout the novel, Atticus, Jem and Scout Finch mature and start showing empathy more and more and to more and more people. If it weren’t for empathy, no one would have defended Tom Robinson. A wise person told me many of our lawyers today as kids they decided to be lawyers because of Atticus Finch’s heroic

Empathy can be defined as making a connection to someone during a situation. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, empathy is a main part in some of the characters’ lives. Without empathy, the novel would lack many components that make the main characters, Jem and Scout, who they are.

Philosopher Albert Schweitzer explains, “The purpose of human life is to serve, and show compassion and the will to help others”(BrainyQoute.com) In order to follow the purpose of life you have to teach the purpose of life. Compassion is meant to be shared and spread throughout the whole world. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Atticus takes this moral upon himself, and teaches Jem and Scout about compassion in Maycomb. Throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee deeply develops her theme that compassion is understanding someone else’s perspective and following your own belief even if it contradicts the way of society.

Humans are the most advanced beings on Earth. Since we are the dominant creature, we are the best creature. We can do astounding things, like what I’m doing right now. It’s pretty cool to have the brain of a human. Right? Debatably. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout and Jem experience classism and implicit bias. From this, they learn to empathize.

Human interaction is important in today's society. It allows each of the species to communicate and share what they feel. But, wny for people struggle with the concept of empathy? To Kill A Mockingbird is a great example of the struggles of empathy. People struggle with empathy because they have different experiences. Characters who show this are Scout, Mayella, and Aunt Alexandra.

1) Atticus is an empathetic person who tries to make sure people are treated equally, and in the case of his children, that people should grow up and make a positive difference. Atticus shows his empathy by telling Scout to try to understand what Miss Caroline is going through. Harper Lee is trying to show that with empathy, everyone benefits, and there would be less hate and injustice. Atticus says, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” (Lee 39). Atticus is telling Scout to look at the world through Miss Caroline’s eyes, to see why Miss Caroline reacts the way that she does. Atticus believes that if Scout can see how scared Miss Caroline is, with teaching a new school in a new way, then Scout can understand what makes Miss Caroline act the way that she does. When Scout asks Atticus why he is angering the town by defending Tom Robinson, he says that he must, or else he would no longer be reputable. Atticus says, “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.” (Lee 101) Atticus leads by example, and that if he did not hold himself to the same standard that he wants Scout and Jem to be at, then he is no better than the rest of the town. He knows that he is going to lose, but wants to show his children that it is important to do the right thing no matter the consequences or result, and

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird presents many ideas that give the reader a sense of theme. She conveys many ideas for theme such as empathy and courage. To convey all of her ideas, she uses different methods like motifs and characters analysis. Throughout the novel, she shows how important these ideas are in helping understand others in society.

In Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout, Jem, and their father Atticus lived in a tiny town called Maycomb. Throughout the 3 years that Scout had narrated, her friends, her brother, and even herself had learned to experience empathy for other people. Not only did they learn how to experience empathy for others, but they also made some people feel empathy towards others. There are some very important parts of this novel that not only do the characters in the book experience empathy, but the reader does too. Empathy has a positive effect on people because they can understand how someone is feeling.

Those who display and teach empathy to others, prevent the light, known as humanity, from being completely extinguished. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, outlines the story of a young girl named Scout who grows up in a small town, surrounded by people who succumb to a society of prejudice. However, Scout’s father, Atticus Finch is very empathetic and ensures that his children learn to be understanding. He tells them that “you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb into his skin and walk around in it” (Lee, 30). Throughout the novel, empathy towards others is demonstrated through teaching, as well as apprehension, by Atticus and Scout.

One of the more famous lessons Scout learns is about empathy. Empathy allows you to understand one's actions, though you may not agree with them. Scouts teacher is Miss. Caroline, she is a young naive teacher from Winston County who had a lose grasp on John Dewey's philosophy. Without the knowledge one gets from living in town for years, on her first day she embarsses herself and punishes Scout for reasons unknown to her. When Scout goes home she tells Atticus what happens, Atticus tells Scout, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”(33)

According to Merriam Webster, the definition of sympathy is an affinity, association, or relationship between persons or things wherein whatever affects one similarly affects the other. Sympathy is shown all throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by, Harper Lee. To Kill a Mockingbird is set in a small, lonely town called Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. To Kill a Mockingbird is about two kids named Scout and Jem. Scout and Jem’s father, who they call Atticus, took a case to defend a black man. The black man named Tom Robinson was accused of raping a girl named Mayella. Throughout the novel, Tom is treated unfairly because he is black. Tom does not get a fair trial and is later accused of raping Mayella, even though all the evidence pointed to her father, Bob Ewell. During this novel, Scout and Jem learn that the world is not as innocent as they thought. Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird sympathy is shown through putting yourself in someone else’s situation. The characters that sympathy is shown to are Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, and Mayella Ewell.

To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee was published in 1960 and written in the time of segregation, where blacks were denied the same rights as white citizens. Harper Lee, who is an American novelist, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribution to literature. In this novel readers better apprehend beliefs about morality and justice through contrasting virtues of empathy, and by analyzing other speeches and articles also written in the same time period. John Kennedy, at the time was the president of the United States, gave his “Address on Civil Rights” speech in 1963. His exhilarating speech recognizes the unfair disadvantages of blacks and asks that they do something that will benefit the country. Robert Kennedy, an American

In this excerpt, Lee highlights the racism that is devastating Maycomb and the people in it. While Atticus talks over the significant events that happened just beforehand, he comes to an epiphany that “A mob’s always made up of people”, and human’s can make mistakes and have the ability to empathize. By having Atticus realize this, Lee portrays a sense of empathy in him, but emphasizes that empathy to a point is no longer valid. Lee does this by having Atticus realize “a gang of wild animals can be stopped, simply because they’re still human.”. An animal, by definition, is not a human, which makes Atticus’ reasoning false. This shows that a person is only empathetic and “human” to a point, while some people have lost their title as a human

You never quite know someone until you’ve walked around in their skin. This is one of the many themes shown throughout the novel, and is very well shown through Scout’s experiences. As she grows and matures we see her become more empathetic towards those around her. She starts off very uncaring and bitter about her circumstances. On her first day of school for example, she says to her new teacher “Walter can’t pay you back because he’s a Cunningham.” She doesn’t think about how he might feel about her using his family name in such a way. After her teacher hits Scout’s hand she then proceeds to shove the boy’s nose into the dirt, blaming him for the teacher’s actions. Not only does this situation show her complete lack of empathy towards those around her, but also when she didn’t realize the teacher was upset with her. She had wondered why she needed to put her hand out and what deal she had made with the teacher, only to be met with a slap on the hand. Not only because punishing children in such a way was very unfamiliar, but also because Scout was unable to properly read her teacher’s emotions. Scout has much to learn about how to consider the feelings of those around her. It’s a common issue, I personally know children around her age that have the same problem, and it is something that takes time to develop. After the incident Scout is told to invite Walter over for lunch, to which she had obliged. During this, Atticus has a conversation with Walter about farming and the