Empathy Is An Essential Part Of Literature

Empathy is the ability to share emotions and feelings with others. This skill requires people to look at things from another person’s point of view. Harper Lee implies in To Kill A Mockingbird that having the ability to feel empathy for others not only benefits others, but also can lead to personal gains in the long run. Empathy is demonstrated through the relationship of the characters of Scout with Walter Cunningham, Atticus with Tom Robinson and the children, and finally, Jem Finch with Mrs. Dubose.

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.

Empathy is something everyone is capable of feeling, but not everyone chooses to take action and help.“Harvest Gypsies” by John Steinbeck, is a non-fictional story about two migrant families who lived in unstable and filthy conditions. “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost, is a fictional poem regarding the relationship between two neighbors that come together every year to mend a wall that divides their properties. The reader is more likely to experience more empathy while reading “Harvest Gypsies” than while reading “Mending Wall” because, Steinbeck regards real people who suffer through hardships, Frost, on the other hand, doesn’t involve the characters undergoing any distress or misfortune, thus the reader may not fully understand what is

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings with others. In To KIll a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, there are many characters who show the quality of empathy. A few examples are the main characters Jem, Atticus, and the narrator Scout Finch. They are all asked to show empathy throughout the book.

10. Empathy means trying to see things from another persons point of view and not judging them from your own set of morals.

Empathy is something that everyone feels or is in the need to say and show feelings towards someone, in homers odyssey some characters show empathy and sympathy in book 9.

Empathy is the ability to understand and the feelings of someone else. This is a major theme all throughout Harper Lee's, To Kill a Mockingbird. The citizens of Maycomb County begin to see things through the eyes of others, but a series of events has to happen before change can me made. Lee uses characters such as Scout, Jem, and Atticus to express the importance and value of empathy.

How is empathy shown in “To Kill a Mockingbird”? When you put yourself in the characters’ shoes and see thing the way they saw them, the book makes sense. Empathy is the experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes towards another person, place, or thing. Showing empathy gives you the look inside someone else thoughts because you will never understand someone until you put yourself in their shoes and walk around in them. The setting is Maycomb, Alabama, a fictional place, which is very segregated.

Having empathy is a trait that most people want to have, or at least should have in their personality. With this trait, you are able to put yourself in the place of another person, like walking in their shoes for a day or only a few seconds to understand. Empathy is used in such a way to just try to get inside someone’s mind to get of grasp on why they did something. Either it be something good like a victory or trying to get inside a serial killer’s head to try to fathom why they had committed such a crime. You don’t have to agree why that person did that, but only understand why. There are many examples of empathy in the book To Kill A Mockingbird that involves Scout and her family, that helps her in many ways to see the world in a different perspective other than her own. Which in the end contributes to her coming of age and the theme of the novel.

Empathy is he ability to understand and the feelings of another. Scout first begins to have an inkling of understanding for Boo when Jem says to her, “ Scout, I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley stayed shut up in the house all this time… it's because he wants to stay inside.” It isn't until much later in the book that Scout fully comprehends empathy for herself when she stands on Boo Radleys porch and pretends that she is him watching g from the window, “Fall and children trotted to and fro around the corner… winter, and children shivered at the front gate… summer and he watched his children's heart break.” Scout says in her narration, “Atticus was right. One time he said you never know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them.

Empathy- The ability to understand and share the feelings of another. To Kill A Mockingbird, a novel by Harper Lee, has many valuable themes. Several themes are developed throughout the storyline. One prominent and recurring theme throughout the novel is the idea that you have to try to understand others and think about how their lives are. Several characters in the novel tell the children to put themselves in someone else’s shoes before they judge or make assumptions about him or her. One example of when Atticus Finch shows empathy is when he says, “Jem, see if you can stand in Bob Ewell’s shoes for a minute. I destroyed his last shred of credibility at that trial, if he had any to begin with. [...] so if spitting in my face and threatening me saved Mayella Ewell one extra beating, that’s something I’ll gladly take. He had to take it out on somebody and I’d rather it be me than that houseful of children out there” (Lee 292). Empathy is shown through Link Deas, Atticus Finch, and Arthur “Boo” Radley’s effect on Scout’s life.

“The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live, ” explained the narrator in the book Atlas Shrugged (Rand, Atlas Shrugged). Reading helps one live a fuller, more enjoyable life. When one is taught of morality and empathy through the means of reading, they are on the path to that way of living. The fundamental empathy that connects all humans is refined and expanded upon by reading, as it exposes the readers to knowledge and morality applied in times of struggle. Books can demonstrate morals coming through in often extreme or emotionally loaded situations.

Empathy is extraordinarily important for children to understand and eventually put into practice, as it exercises their ability to feel and respect the emotions of other people. Empathy also plays a big role in trust and support- both of which are very important aspects of any relationship, and is necessary for living a healthy, functional life in today’s society. In her article, Dovey describes “A 2011 study published in the Annual Review of Psychology […] showed that, when people read about an experience, they display stimulation within the same neurological regions as when they go through that experience themselves.” (Dovey par. 11). This means that when people, or in this case, children, read stories, their brains react as if they were going through the same situations and emotions that they read about. This is a great way for kids to learn about empathy, why it’s important, and how to apply it to their own lives. One may argue that, while reading may trigger empathetic feelings in the majority of people, those who enjoy reading have greater empathetic tendencies than others, making reading to teach empathy only applicable to those who like to read and have these higher-than-average tendencies. Dovey also addresses this, stating that “other studies published in 2006 and 2009 showed […] that people who read a lot of fiction [tended] to be better at empathizing with others (even after the researchers had accounted for the potential bias that people with greater empathetic

Most definitions of empathy are based on the same core idea - empathy is the ability to understand and identify someone else’s thoughts and feelings, as if they were one’s own (wordreference online dictionary, 2016). Although it’s been said “there are probably nearly as many definitions of empathy as people working on the topic.” (de Vignemont & Singer, 2006, p.435) suggesting that there is no singular way to even define empathy, let alone explain its impact on our behaviour. Due to the sheer depth and complexity of empathy it’s understandable that each discipline within psychology presents it’s own explanation for why we experience it, and how it can affect our interaction with the world around us. Psychologists have been exploring empathy for decades, in hope of gaining a complete grasp of what it means and how it can vary between each person, therefore its important we look at different psychological perspectives to try to understand it’s many dimensions.

Empathy is often described as having consideration of someone else feelings. Webster defines empathy as, the feeling that you understand and share another 's experience and emotions. Empathy consists of having the ability to feel another person 's feelings and the ability to place oneself in another person shoes or situation. In counseling, the therapist is expected to show empathy for their clients whose experiences are different from the counselor. The role of the counselor is to support the client with any issues or concerns. The role empathy plays in counseling.