To Kill A Mockingbird Empathy Character Analysis

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee presents the idea that in order to gain empathy one must go through many experiences because the more one morally develops the higher their ability becomes to understand others. Going through many experiences can help one to grow morally. In To Kill a Mockingbird the character Jem shows throughout the book to be going through the changes of moral development in comparison to Dill who is younger yet has already progressed faster. In the beginning of the novel he is a young boy who believes that those older should be respected. Foolish and naive, he believes whatever gossip is told to him and believes that whatever he thinks is the truth. “Dill said striking a match under a turtle was hateful. ‘Ain’t hateful, just persuades him--’s not like you’d chunk him in the fire,’ Jem growled. ‘How do you know a match don’t hurt him?’ ‘Turtles can’t feel, stupid,’ said Jem. ‘Were you ever a turtle, huh?’” (15). As Jem and Dill discuss how to coax Arthur Radley out of his

Just being in preschool I already experienced being an outcast. Because the girls wouldn’t let me play with them I was forced to play Legos with the boys and then when they didn’t want me because of silly childish things like “cooties” I was forced to learn how to read by myself in the corner. When my friends come to me, sad and left out because their other friends don’t want to hang out with them anymore, I can give them the comfort they need because I understand exactly how they feel. I used to talk to my dad about how people who attempted or committed suicide were cowards because they couldn’t deal with their own issues. After I went through a long struggle with multiple mental disorders I then understood how all those suicidal people felt, something my dad and many others that haven’t experienced that could never