Importance Of Empathy In To Kill A Mockingbird

Topic sentence…………… something about lack of empathy in today’s society important as book teaches why it is an important skill to have. Often nowadays people tend to ignore the feelings of others, so this novel is an amazing reminder on why empathy is so crucial in life. In the book Atticus enforces this message strongly onto his kids, which also comes across to Harper Lee’s readers. When Bob Ewell is frustrated after the trial and takes his anger out on Atticus, Atticus completely puts himself in Bob’s shoes and states to his son “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 kinds 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 292-293) Even after all the horrible acts, such as spitting in his face (Lee 290) towards Atticus, Atticus is able to remain a positive outlook and understand how Bob must be feeling to justify his actions.

Former President Barack Obama had stated, “It’s the lack of empathy that makes it very easy for us to plunge into wars.” Obama infers that when people lose empathy, they lose the ability to understand others, which is a key emotion that helps people interact. His message connects to Marxism, a literary theory involving an imbalance of power. In the story “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, the characters’ experiences prove the reader of the significance a lack of empathy causes to the balance of power. An application of Marxism reveals that an imbalance of authoritative power is caused by a lack of empathy.

When one grows up, it is inevitable they will lose their innocence. Seeing the world through rose colored glasses can only take one so far, and eventually they will have to open their eyes to real issues in their lives. While this happens at different ages for everyone, Atticus in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee believes that his kids should not be sheltered from the real world. As Scout and Jem, Atticus’ children, grow up, especially in a time where Maycomb is so segregated, Atticus teaches his kids real life lessons and to not become like the rest of their town; racist and judgemental. This comes with a cost, however, as the kids “grow up” at an expedited rate. Throughout the novel, Jem and Scout learn valuable life lessons

In Harper Lee’s critically acclaimed magnum opus “To Kill A Mockingbird;” Lee emphasizes her view on the importance of empathy through how she depicts empathy in regards to the characters Scout, Tom Robinson, and Atticus. “To Kill A Mockingbird” is a novel shown from the view of Scout, a young girl living in the sleepy town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s, and her and her brothers escapades; mainly their captivation over an elusive local resident who doesn’t leave his house, and the drawn-out process of a court case against a black man, Tom Robinson, who is falsely accused of rape. Throughout the novel, Harper Lee emphasizes the importance of empathy to her through how she

Scout matured quickly through her experiences of the real world. She realized many harsh realities at a very young age. Through her journey she learned the terrible effects of people's racism and hate. Many of the things she learned were not for someone of her age but because of the situations in To Kill a Mockingbird. The story was told by an adult Scout,

It is very important that writers are able to send a message to their reader with their book. Authors best do this by bringing about empathy. In order to send this message, authors often develop strong characters that go through various problems and struggles. The book, To Kill a Mockingbird, shows this very well with its characters Scout Finch and Tom Robinson. This book helps the readers learn from the character’s reactions to their problems. Also, the idea that authors build well developed characters to bring about a deeper understanding is shown through the poem Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar. In this poem, the speaker explains of being trapped in the things that society says about him. Through these texts, it is evident that authors can best create empathy in their readers by developing great characters because when characters go through daily events that are challenging and troublesome, the readers are able to relate and understand what they are going through or we are able to learn from their experiences and influence us to adjust our lifestyles.

Without compassion the world would be a dark place, there would be no such thing as love and there would be no one to lend a helping hand. Even in society today, people approach situations with no compassion, humans discriminate against others because of differences in color or appearances. In the book "To Kill a Mockingbird" the author, Harper Lee, writes about a town that shows no compassion towards people of color even when there are lives at risk. In the book, we learn that "[you 'll] never 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) All members of the Finch family show compassion towards others in the book "To Kill a Mockingbird", Scout shows compassion

In a world filled with judgement and criticism, people struggle with this on the daily. Always having an opinion about every little thing. Whether people choose to share or not that is their own perspective and everyone’s is different. A person can never have judgement for a person, until they can physically feel and see what they go through each and every day. In Harper Lee’s To KIll A Mockingbird she expresses the theme of perspective throughout the whole book, using her characters in the story to express this.

There is a Native American quote that says “Don’t judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes.” This quote shows a great example of empathy. Put yourself in their place and see how it feels, you don’t have to agree with, but you should understand them before you make judgements. That is empathy in a nutshell. In In To Kill a Mockingbird Empathy is an essential in the narrator Scout’s growing up or coming of age. There are countless amounts of empathy, which enforces how important empathy is.

Dubose. Atticus explains to them that sometimes in life one has to do things one may not enjoy in order to serve others. Atticus then connects Jem and Scout’s struggle with Mrs. Dubose to himself and the trial. Atticus says to Scout and Jem “ ‘Tom Robinson’s case, is something that goes to the essence of a man’s conscience- Scout, I couldn't go to church and worship God if I didn’t try to help that man’ ” (Lee 139). The moment is showing the moral justice behind Atticus's reasoning for defending Tom. Atticus shows how not only is he defending Tom because he knows he is innocent, but he is saying how the action would literally goes against his moral conscience. Atticus shows compassion because he is choosing to see equality in others and how Tom Robinson is no less of a man because of the color of his skin. In the moment, Atticus not only shows compassion towards Tom but also genuine respect.

Sympathy is a significant example losing their innocence at the same time Scout and Jem learn about sympathy. Throughout the novel, Jem learns to be sympathetic to others such as when he realizes that Boo Radley has problems. Scout, Jem, and Dill had made up this amusement game which they used to torment Boo, at the same time atticus discovered out and advised them to be sympathetic towards Boo. Jem and Scout accidently burn down Miss Maudie's house and show sympathy by apologizing to her. Mrs. Maudie told her that Boo Radley was a good kid growing up. Mrs. Maudie tolds scout to show sympathy towards

Throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem and Scout 's perception of courage drastically changes their behavior as they mature. They learn a lot about courage throughout the novel from their father Atticus and what they learn from him influences their choices and opinions. Although Jem is older than Scout, they both experience change in their behavior. At the beginning of the novel, Jem is still a young boy. He is defiant towards Atticus, he plays all the usual childhood games with Scout and Dill, and he engages in the younger children’s obsession with Boo Radley. As the novel progresses, Jem becomes less defiant and more understanding of adults. Jem witnesses the physical and moral courage of his father before and during the trial of

Being the older sibling, Jem realizes the long-held values of Maycomb, but only as he matures does he understand what it means to have moral integrity. There are many times in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee in which the reader can see Jem’s maturity and his moral values. The first time Jem starts to understand moral integrity is when he is forced to read to Mrs. Dubose. After her death, Atticus explains just how much she was going through, and this information had a great impact on Jem. Jem furthers his knowledge of moral integrity during the trial. Jem believes that Atticus and Tom Robinson have won because he knows that the evidence was strong. Atticus ends up losing, which causes Jem to realize how much men will overlook evidence and the truth just to go against an African American. Lastly, Jem understands moral integrity while watching and learning from Atticus. Atticus firmly believes in ideas such as Tom Robinson’s innocence. He never gave up or fell to other men’s beliefs during the time of the trial, before it, or after it.

He taught the great lesson of empathy to Scout after the first day of school where she was made fun of by the teacher in class. He told Scout to put herself in the teacher's shoes and showed Scout that the teacher was new and had a lot of kids to deal with. Next, Atticus displayed extreme empathy and self-control towards Bob Ewell. Bob Ewell had spit in Atticus's face because Atticus ruined his reputation in court (Bob Ewell did not have a great reputation anyway). Atticus did not care, instead he stood there and took it like a gentleman. He looked at Ewell's attack from Mayella's point of view. He saw that he was saving poor Mayella a beating from her father. Atticus also shows empathy to Boo Radley. He shows empathy by not turning him in for murder because he was the one who killed Bob Ewell when Atticus's children were attacked. Atticus would be exposing Boo to the world, the exact opposite of what Boo and Atticus

In Chapter 15 of To Kill a Mockingbird,when scout tries to have a conversation with Mr. Cunningham, Scout’s compassion relieves the tension of two situations. When they are about to lynch Tom Robinson,