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Compassion In To Kill A Mockingbird

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The most basic objective of life is to stay alive. The probability of death occurring within one 's lifetime is 100% guaranteed. Death is unavoidable, but the inevitable can be postponed. The urge to survive has supplied humans with the two traits of empathy and compassion. Empathy is the ability to walk in someone else’s shoes and see things from their perspective. Compassion is what helps us survive. Compassion is acting on the insight gathered from empathy, compassion is helping others, but it is not done without the underlying promise that the act will be returned. This is where right and wrong originate from. Morality is a means of survival, the morally permissible choice will keep you alive longer, people will like you and want to protect …show more content…

Atticus, Scout’s father, is appointed as Tom Robinson 's lawyer. This creates a conflict in the usually quiet town of Maycomb. Some angry men of Maycomb confront Atticus at night in the form of a mob. They want to kill Tom Robinson and they make it clear that they won’t let Atticus stop them. Scout runs to her father 's aid and speaks out to a familiar face she finds within the mob, “Don’t you remember me, Mr. Cunningham? I’m Jean Louise Finch. You brought us some hickory nuts one time, remember?”(Harper pp.205). In the small county of Maycomb, everyone knows one another. The mob that confronted Atticus did not consist of strangers. It consisted of familiar faces; neighbours and family friends that could be traced back by generations. Scout unknowingly uses this to her advantage and pressures Mr.Cunningham to make the morally right decision. In the end Mr. Cunningham displays moral courage by calling off the mob.

Harper Lee creates the theme of moral courage through the use of setting and characters. By placing the story in a racist small town county of Alabama in the 1930’s, Harper Lee provides racial tension that drives the majority of the novel 's conflict. The characters refusal to conform to the morals of those who surround them effectively support her theme. This novel proves that moral courage goes against human instinct, that it doesn 't aid in survival. The most basic

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In Maycomb County, the Negroes are viewed as inferior, and in addition, the Jim Crow laws are enforced to ensure segregation. As a result, they do not have equal rights as the other citizens. When Atticus is asked to defend Tom Robinson, a Negro man accused of raping a white girl, he accepts. To the community this was improper. The community’s disgust at Atticus’ decision is expressed when Scout is irked by Cecil Jacobs, a boy in her class, when he announces that, “Scout Finch’s daddy defended niggers.”

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“Emotions can’t be allowed to interfere with what is right.” This quote, provided by Amazon’s recent, critically-acclaimed dystopian television series accurately summarizes the key takeaway when it comes to morality in To Kill a Mockingbird. How does this quote from a television show which takes place in an alternate 1960s America relate to the theme of morality in Harper Lee’s Great Depression-era novel? To answer this, we must first examine how the said theme in the novel is created. How does Harper Lee convey her message of not letting emotion sway us from right?

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When a large riot came to get Atticus, Scout was timid at first, but once, she saw a familiar face, Mr.Cunningham, she realized they were just regular people just like her she remembered that “there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.” (304) and used this opportunity to try to stop them. She walked up to him and started talking to him like it was a normal conversation, and that is all it took to save her father.

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In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the worth of compassion persists as a relevant theme. Throughout their childhood, Jem and Scout encounter many people who do nothing to earn any compassion. But as they mature and endure countless moral conflicts, compassion evolves from a form of pity into a determining and necessary moral factor. Even though people often act deceitful and immoral, everyone deserves compassion.

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Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, is a novel that takes place in a small town, called Maycomb, in Alabama, narrated by Jean Louise “Scout” Finch. Scout learns how to deal with many things in everyday life, including racism and criticism. While learning about these things, she finds that courage is being shown by not only herself, but by other role models around her, including her father, Atticus Finch. The theme of courage is very significant in the novel.

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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.

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To KIll a Mockingbird by Harper Lee uses the town of Maycomb changing throughout the story ultimately affecting the ending. Lee represents society as an ever changing factor to people life. There are a few things that attribute to this change including the case against Tom Robinson as well as the mob that confronts Atticus wanting to get at Tom Robinson. Characters such as Atticus Finch have seen this change in Maycomb and are personally affected by it.

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Empathy Empathy is shown in To Kill A Mockingbird by Atticus standing up for Tom Robinson, Jem realizing that Arthur Radley is not crazy; he is just antisocial, and Scout feeling remorse for tormenting Arthur throughout her childhood. Atticus shows empathy throughout the whole book, from promising Scout that they will read every night, to taking on Tom Robinson’s trial, it’s hard to find a more genuine character. While Atticus knew that the trial may not end well, he still believed he should stand up for what is right, regardless of anyone’s skin color. Atticus was willing to fight a large group of burly men to protect Tom Robinson, it could be that he thought about what he would want others to do if he were in that situation.

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Some people believe that certain individuals are too despicable to be worthy of compassion, but others think they deserve a second chance and are not all bad. People like Mayella Ewell from Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird are worthy of compassion, even after what they have done. Mayella Ewell is a 19-year-old girl in the 1930’s accusing a black man of raping her. This entails a trial and many people want the defendant, Tom Robinson, killed, which is extremely likely to happen because of his race. However, in the trial, Mayella tells us that her home life is not safe or sanitary, and due to her circumstances at home, Mayella does deserve compassion.

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Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. To me the word empathy in “To Kill A Mockingbird” means “putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.” Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” suggests that empathy is a universal feeling, but everyone experiences it in different occasions and in different ways. Many people empathize through real life experiences. Scout is one of those people.

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People may do atrocious things but some still deserve compassion. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Mayella Ewell is a nineteen-year-old girl who frames a black man named Tom Robinson for raping her. The Ewells take this to court due to the injuries Mayella obtained. She claims that Tom raped her, but in reality, she made a move on him and he was trying to get out of the situation. Mayella’s father, Bob Ewell, caught her and was furious at Mayella for her advancing a black man.

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Humans live in a world where moral values are very clearly set determining what is good and what is bad. We know what scares us and how racism should be treated. Nevertheless, this was not the case back in Alabama during the 1950s. In the famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee narrates the lives of the people of Maycomb, Alabama, focusing on the story of Scout and Jem Finch, and the case of a said to be rape. In this emotion filled narrative, readers learn how life was back then not only in general, but for the separate social statuses that there was.

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Mood gave the novel tension, surprise, and sadness which help make the novel more interesting and a meaningful theme. Imagery in the novel created a unique sense of language and created better images of moral courage of the characters. Harper Lee’s theme of moral courage in her novel To Kill A Mockingbird can be compared in reality in the same way. In reality, most people are treated unequally and the history of slaves are both compared with similarity in the novel. Moral courage can be anywhere, like in books and even in the real

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In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the character Atticus possesses the most compassion out of the other characters. Atticus is a man of profession, however, his compassionate heart can not be overlooked. Atticus tells Jem to "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." (Lee 81) to display his compassion for those who are innocent. Compassion is the concern for the suffering or misfortune of others.

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In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, some people do not recognize that someone wants to help them. The people mentioned had been given or received kindness from someone but they do not know that they are trying to help. The types of kindness that will be shown is kindness within the Finch family, kindness shown through neighbours, and kindness of acquaintances. It is shown that kindness is taken for granted.

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