What first comes to mind when hearing the term, “empathy”? Some would see empathy as only feeling one’s pain, or sorrow, while others would mistake the word “empathy” for “sympathy”. But empathy is beyond sympathy. Empathy, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is defined as “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another”. In other words, empathy is feeling and understanding another’s emotions, such as love, happiness, fear, sadness, or anger. But why is empathy important and crucial to everyday lives? Empathy is displayed as a recurring theme in the novel, “To Kill A Mockingbird.” In the novel, author Harper Lee chooses the story to be told from a 6-year old’s perspective, who goes by the name “Scout”. Scout is thrown into a world full of quick judgement, racial stereotypes, and inequality. Empathy is not only important to ourselves and others, but it is vital to society.
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.
Small town America is a fantasy of friendly neighbors and lovely lives. To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in a small town and is nothing close to the fantasy of friendly neighbors and lovely lives. In a town of rape, racism, and prejudice, the reader watches who falls and who thrives in a small town on the brink of collapse. To Kill a Mockingbird, a coming of age fiction, was written by Harper Lee and published on July 11, 1960. This novel follows two siblings, Jem and Scout, throughout their most impressionable years in Maycomb County, Alabama, during the Great Depression. From Scout’s point of view, the reader watches how Maycomb County deals with the good and bad of society. While people are born with the ability to empathize, their
Beloved is a novel by Toni Morrison based on slavery after the Civil War in the year 1873, and the hardships that come with being a slave. This story involves a runaway captive named Sethe, who commits a heinous crime to protect her child from the horrors of slavery. Through her traumas, Sethe runs from the past and tries to live a normal life. The theme of Toni Morrison’s story Beloved is how people cannot escape the past. Every character relates their hard comings to the past through setting, character development, and conflict.
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.
In the Television show “Saved by the Bell” Jessica "Jessie" Spano is a lifetime friend of Zack, Screech, Slater, Lisa and Kelly. Jessie is the smartest, athletic, outgoing, shiest, and courageous person you will ever encounter from a television show. Jessie was the class president; and one of the head cheerleaders. Jessie’s role in the hit show is represented as a liberal, with very strong feminist interpretations. Jessie was known for being the first to speak up when she felt something was unjust. Jessie was always on the scene; she was a part of every organization or club there was. Jessie thought she had to be perfect and get things done right the first time instead of being your typical teenager. Jessie was very hard on herself; wouldn’t take any crap from a man; and thought she had to do it all.
Ponyboy is caring because he is thoughtful. Towards the end of the story Ponyboy went to see Johnny while he was in the hospital. I think that Pony taking his time to visit Johnny while the brawl was about to happen showed Pony’s thoughtfulness. It is clear to see that Ponyboy cares about other people more than himself. He went to go visit Johnny in the hospital taking up his own time, Pony is being thoughtful. Maybe Johnny wanted someone to come visit because he felt lonely. Next, Pony showed his thoughtfulness when he risked his life to save the kids in the fire. On page 91 paragraph 8 Ponyboy said,”“I’ll get them don’t worry”I started for a dead charge for the church.” I think that this shows the reader that Ponyboy wants to put other people before himself and save the kids from the fire. Ponyboy is cleary thoughtful because he was willing to die to save other people's lives and he is willing to lose his own life. Ponyboy is caring because he was willing to spend his time doing stuff for other people and he is
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.
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.
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from their point of view-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” (p.30) The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee includes a plethora of essential themes that make one think deeply. The story takes place in the 1930’s when segregation tensions were high. The narrative is told through the eyes of a young girl, Jean Louise (Scout) Finch. Scout’s father, Atticus is a lawyer fighting a case for an African American man named Tom Robinson. Throughout the novel, both Scout and her older brother Jeremy (Jem) Finch learn many life lessons that are crucial for all children to learn about. One fundamental lesson learned by the children, is the lesson of having empathy.
Harper Lee, in the realistic-fiction novel To Kill A Mockingbird, uses a variety of literary elements to aid in the overall development of the theme. All of the characters are going through some sort of coming of age experience or enhancing someone else's experience as well as their lives all the while being greatly impacted by the racial discrimination and injustices that occurred all around them. An event in the novel that expresses this is the court case of Tom Robinson, or more specifically, Atticus’s, Tom Robinson’s attorney, closing argument. During this Tom Robinson is wrongly accused of raping a white girl in their town of Maycomb, and Atticus decides to defend him as his attorney despite the town's clear racial biases and preconceived stereotypes on people of color; this greatly impacts Atticus’s daughter, Scout. To show this Harper Lee uses setting, plot and conflict to enhance the development of the novel and put forth the theme. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee uses these literary elements, plot, conflict and setting to develop the idea that the presence of racial inequality leading to the undermining of justice impacts the coming of age for Scout on a variety of levels.
¨Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself.¨ - Mohsin Hamid. What is empathy exactly? Many people are empathetic in different ways, but the true meaning is to be able to connect with others. By mentioning ¨echoes¨, Hamid is asserting that empathy is a part of every person and shows the reason of thoughts behind one's actions. He shows the universal meaning of empathy through the use of the word, “echo”. This quote is similar to the main message of Harper Lee´s book, To kill a Mockingbird. In a quiet town called Maycomb County, Harper Lee describes a young girl named Scout and her journey navigating through her society's prejudice and lack of empathy towards others. Her book signifies the importance of empathy. It also teaches us that people have to keep an open mind while being empathic even if other’s have a fixed view, and this, in turn, affects our attitude towards them.
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
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.