Empathetic In To Kill A Mockingbird

Atticus Finch is a father of two children, a fair lawyer, a committed community member and most importantly a good person. The setting of the story To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a small town in an era where racism is prevalent, a white person’s word will always be above a black person’s. This attitude is common among the community members of the town and time period but Atticus hasn’t caught this “disease”. Throughout the novel, Atticus stays true to himself with the same morals and characteristics, even in difficult situations. Besides not having any prejudices against the black community, Atticus is also humble, has integrity and empathetic. Atticus is a man of integrity and after the incident of Ewell’s attack on his children,

We can see the first glimpse of empathy from Atticus when the black community in Maycomb gave him food to show their appreciation for his effort in protecting Tom Robinson. His reaction quoted from the story is “Atticus’s eyes filled with tears…’Tell them I’m - tell them they must not do this again…’” (p.249). It is obvious that Atticus is really thankful but his empathy causes him to understand that times are really hard right now, especially for the black community, that’s why he doesn’t want them to sacrifice the little things they have. Another major occurrence of Atticus’s empathy was when he was threatened and spat on by Bob Ewell. Instead of getting offended and accepting Bob’s invitation to fight, he refuses and casually walks away. He even made a joke saying he wished Bob Ewell wouldn’t chew tobacco. When he is confronted by his son Jem about the incident, he tells Jem to have more empathy. He says in the novel, “‘Jem, see if you can stand in Bob Ewell’s shoes a minute. I destroyed his last shred of credibility at that trial...the man had to have some kind of comeback.’” (p.249) This quote really shows us the level of empathy Atticus can have. He is able to hold his anger during the confrontation and then feel empathy to try and understand Bob’s reasoning, he is truly an empathetic

Atticus was an older man, “much older than the parents of our school contemporaries” (p.102). He was too old to tackle with Jem and he spent his free time reading. The quote “Our father didn’t do anything… anything that could possibly arouse the admiration of anyone” (p.102) shows us Scout’s view of her father, which isn’t that impressive. But Scout and Jem later realize that their father has an unknown skill, sharp shooting. The first time Atticus displayed his shooting skills was when there was a sick dog that had to be put down and he was the one who had to do it. His skill was demonstrated in the quote, “Atticus’s hand yanked a ball-tipped lever as he brought the gun to his shoulder… He didn’t know what hit him” (p.110). “He” was the dog and it was shot dead with Atticus’s very first shot. This was the first time Scout and Jem had seen their father do something more interesting than reading. It was something Atticus could have been mighty proud of since he was known previously as One-shot Finch, the best shot in town. But instead of bragging about this, Atticus doesn’t even mention it to his children to try and reassure them about his image. His humble self even shushes sheriff Heck Tate when he tells his children about Atticus’s skills. Atticus covering up his talent is surely a presentation of