Empathy In To Kill A Mockingbird

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

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 Chapter 3 of Harper Lee’s book To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout scolds Walter Cunningham for his table manners during a dinner at their house, which causes Atticus to later bring her aside and talk to her. While talking to Scout, Atticus gives this as a piece of advice to her. “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.” Telling Scout this, Atticus urges her to learn the importance of empathizing and treating others with kindness. This is one of many examples throughout the novel that show Atticus’ ability to empathize with others.

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.

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.

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)

In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee used point of view, conflict, and characterization to create a sense of empathy in the reader. Point of view was used to create empathy by portraying the main characters as young children who see things through a simple mindset, as a result they have an acute sense of justice and fairness. For example on page 212, it says “ “It ain’t right,” he muttered… “I don’t know, but they did it... they’ll do it again and when they do it...

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.

“Empathy is about finding echoes of another person inside yourself.”(author unknown) Knowing what someone goes through helps us better understand a person and develop empathy for them. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Atticus was someone that most everybody valued and could trust. People would go to Atticus if they needed guidance and simply just for help. He is one who always has such strong empathy for others, sets good examples, and is a great role model. Atticus puts and thinks of others before himself, especial his two kids, Jem and Scout. The kids lost their mother at a very young age and as Scout gets older Atticus thinks that she may need a woman’s influence around the house, so he calls his sister Alexandra to come

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 the vast world that humankind inhabits, power and privilege are distributed unevenly. Throughout history, there have existed those of higher status and power and those born with absolutely nothing. Each person has their own perspective and circumstance, but preconceived notions can alter the human perspective. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee accurately depicts the injustice and inequality of American society. It stars an eight year old girl named Jean Louise “Scout” Finch living in Maycomb County, Alabama in the 1930’s.

During English class we talked about empathy and how in the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout showed empathy to her brother, Jem when he was moody and silent. Scout showed a great deal of maturity at the age of seven when she was empathetic to her brother. Many people nowadays have trouble showing empathy for others around them. Empathy is the ability to not only detect feelings of other people but also experience the emotion yourself. Empathy can be both a blessing and nuisance. If a person can read someone else’s emotions they can help and understand them, it will be easier to connect with that person. But empathetic people may end up experiencing the negative feelings and emotion around them which can be a major problem for some people.

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

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.

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