In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, empathy and understanding others is demonstrated by the actions of several characters and is one of the many empowering themes. It is also unique and different than any of the other themes, and even connects to the novel’s title. Atticus Finch’s famous quote states, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb into his skin and walk around in it" (Lee33). Many characters learn to become more empathetic towards others which causes them to become better people, and in some cases, helps them mature.
Out of all of the characters, Atticus Finch is the most empathetic towards others. This is probably due to his older age and wisdom, and his daughter,
…show more content…
Dolphus Raymond, but there is one person that seems to affect Jem quite powerfully. Her name is Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose, the Finch’s neighbor who always criticizes Jem and Scout’s behavior whenever they walk by. One day,the kids were walking home from town and had already endured Mrs. Dubose’s taunts on the way there. Jem, who could not hold in his anger any longer takes the baton that he had just bought Scout and begins to destroy Mrs. Dubose’s camellias. Atticus finds out and tells Jem to go apologize to her. When he gets back, he says Mrs. Dubose wants Jem to come to her house every afternoon and read to her. Jem and Scout think she is making Jem do this because she is just a cruel person, but they find out later she had another reason. After she dies, Atticus tells them that Mrs. Dubose was a morphine addict, and she was using Jem reading to distract her in between the time that she took her medication. Atticus tells Jem, “‘She said she was going to leave this world beholden to nothing and nobody’” (Lee 127). Her successfully achieved goal was to no longer be an addict when she died. Jem empathizes with her and the fact that she might not be that mean of a person, and now understands that what Mrs. Dubose did took real courage according to