Examples Of Empathy In To Kill A Mockingbird

Emily Schoen

Gina Wright

5th hour

1 February 2023

See It The Way I do

Intro:

1. “We judge what we do not understand” (unknown).

2. People are quick to judge people if they are different then they are. It comes from a lack of knowledge of who they are or the lack of interest to understand. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee shows this in many different ways.

3. The novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee shows that if you have empathy for people you can better understand how they think and who they are as a person.

4. In Harper Lee’s novel she shows empathy through her characters in the story. The main characters that show empathy are Scout, Atticus and Jem.

5. In many ways Scout, Jem, and Atticus show

Jem in this novel also uses empathy to learn about the people of Maycomb.

2. Jem uses empathy to understand why the people of Maycomb act the way they do.

3. Jem says “If there’s just one kind of folks, why can’t they get along with each other? If they’re all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other? Scout, I think I’m beginning to understand something. I think I’m beginning to understand why Boo Radley’s stayed shut up in the house all this time... it’s because he wants to stay inside.”(Lee 304).

4. Here Jem understands why Mr.Radley would stay inside all day even if he had the choice of coming out. He knows it's because of how the town is and he wants to stay inside and avoid all of the terrible things in the town.

5 Jem in the story explains to Scout how to get along better with people you have to understand who they are, and how they are feeling or acting.

6. Jem understands that you need empathy, and wants Scout to know that to better get along with other people you have to have empathy.

7. Likewise Jem and Scout both learn a lot of the empathy they have for the people of the town because that's what their father taught

Just like the other characters in the novel Atticus uses empathy to better understand others but while teaching others too.

2. Atticus uses empathy to understand other people and teach his kids about other people to make them better.

3. In the novel Atticus explains “Jem, see if you can stand in Bob Ewell’s shoes a minute. I destroyed his last shred of credibility at that trial, if he had any to begin with. The man had to have some kind of comeback, his kind always does. So if spitting in my face and threatening me saved Mayella Ewell one extra beating, that’s something I’ll gladly take.”(Lee 292).

4. Atticus wants Jem to understand how Bob is feeling in this situation. He knows that what he did made Bob feel insecure and knows that Jem needs to understand.

5 "We could not expect her to learn all Maycomb’s ways in one day." (Lee 40).

6. Atticus tells Scout that she needs to go easy on her teacher. He tells her that she is trying to understand the town but she has only been there for a few days. So he wants her to have empathy for her and to understand that she is trying her best to learn.

7. Furthermore all of these characters in the story show the same characteristic.