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Examples Of Compassion In To Kill A Mockingbird

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To Kill A Mockingbird : Looking Beyond To have compassion is to have the ability to look beyond yourself and be keenly aware of the world around you. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the protagonists undoubtedly display compassion for others through the many life-altering experiences, ultimately developing the minds of the characters and the way they act, feel and comprehend situations. It is conspicuous that Arthur Radley typifies compassion when he takes care of both Jem and Scout in specific situations in the novel, which increasingly uncovers the main message; Miss Maudie continuously shows compassion toward people looked down upon by other individuals and the society. Moreover, Atticus demonstrates compassion throughout the novel …show more content…

Atticus’ compassion makes him more aware of the truth’s of society that are hard to understand, including with Mrs. Dubose. After she dies, Atticus explains to his children, “According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew” (Lee 149). Atticus’ compassion allows him to understand different perspectives of people, including Mrs. Dubose, and he knows that she fought to end her morphine addiction. He is teaching the children to look beyond themselves, and into why other people act the way they do. Moreover, Atticus’ compassion extends even to the people whom are deemed as “trash” and who supposedly should be his enemies. Jem is talking to Atticus about the current conditions, and Atticus elucidates, “So if spitting in my face and threatening me saved Mayella Ewell one extra beating, that’s something I’ll gladly take. He had to take it out on somebody, and I’d rather it be me than that houseful of children there” (Lee 292). Although Mayella is on the other side of the case, Atticus still shows compassion, which helps him to realize the real situation of Mayella. Atticus’ compassion affects the way he feels, as he’ll gladly take the threats instead of Mayella getting beat. Lastly, Atticus’ compassion for Tom Robinson allows him to act the right way, even if it is against society's beliefs. Atticus tells his two innocent children, “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” (Lee 39). Not one other lawyer wants to take the case, but due Atticus’ compassion for Tom, he sympathetically pities him, which allows him to view the world differently. Atticus’ compassion results in him being viewed as a symbol of good. In the community of Maycomb, people are against him, but

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Did you know the name of the book “To Kill A Mockingbird” is a direct reference from a famous saying “To kill a mockingbird is a sin? Well now that you know that reference in the book this is exactly how they explain how innocence in this book is stolen away and a sin is committed. Theoretically there are mockingbirds in the story but they are people. These are some of the ways that empathy is directly quoted and showed in the book “To Kill A Mockingbird”. Empathy is what Atticus Finch had for a boy named Tom Robinson he was trying to save him from the death penalty.

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If Atticus had approached Mayella with an attitude of hatred, she would continue to be impudent and act like she doesn’t care. “Atticus’s voice had lost its comfortableness; he was speaking in his arid, detached professional voice. ’Do you remember him beating you about the face?’’ (Atticus 247).

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The dictionary describes empathy as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. But, you can’t look up how to feel empathy for someone. I believe that your experiences in life determine that. In To Kill a Mockingbird, (TKM), The kids, Scout and Jem each learn empathy through the events in the story. In the beginning, Atticus teaches them what the definition of empathy is, but they do not feel it until later in the book.

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To Kill A Mockingbird Essay In the novel, To kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a young girl named Scout and her brother Jem, display acts of empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and relate to the feelings of others. Scout lives in the county of Maycomb with her family, Atticus, Jem, Aunt Alexandra, and Calpurnia.

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First, Atticus best shows and demonstrates empathy towards people. Atticus Finch communicates to Mayella ewell about accusing Tom Robinson with rape even though he did not rape her, instead of talking harshly, he slowly and calmly says “I have nothing but pity in my heart for the chief witness of the

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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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Just like respect, compassion is earned and not given. In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, A young woman named Mayella Ewell who is the daughter of an alcoholic widower lives in a small town in Alabama named Maycomb behind the town’s dump during the great depression. Tom Robinson, a black man living in the same town as Mayella, is being tried for rape after being accused by Mayella and her father Bob. Mayella’s accusation has had detrimental impacts on Tom’s family and overall life which is formed on the account of a white woman’s word versus a black man’s word.

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Mockingbird” shows that even the most manipulative characters are worthy of compassion when they are victims, however the most despicable characters who are truly dishonest do not deserve compassion. Mayella Ewell lies about Tom raping her however she deserves compassion because of her tough life. Mrs Dubose is a horrendous old woman who shouts rude comments to the Finch family but she deserves compassion because of her courage. Bob Ewell is truly dishonest and does not care about anyone but himself, therefore he does not deserve compassion.

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Atticus knows that to be the decent man in a town of indecent people, he must show commiseration and respect to everyone regardless of who they are, where they come from, or what they look like. The main messages that Atticus as a character sends to the reader are messages telling the reader that indifference can destroy relationships, bonds, communities, and promote the generally wrong heterogeneous philosophies (especially in the fictional town of Maycomb) society has cultivated. Atticus “does his (my) best” to “love everybody” throughout the book and demonstrates this when he defends Tom Robinson, even when everyone thought the contrary of him. Atticus is a people-pleaser, but knows the boundaries and when to stand his ground or back down. This trait of Atticus’s consociates with the theme of empathy shown by a ‘handful’ of characters in the book.

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Empathy. The ability to understand what someone else is going through by putting oneself in their place and situation. All throughout history, people have struggled with the concept of empathy. For example, Jews have been mistreated for hundreds of years on numerous occasions by those of an advantaged position, African Americans have been subjugated by the privileged White throughout much of American history, and this struggle is even seen today with the prejudice towards Muslims across the world. Harper Lee created a timeless piece of literature that has lived on for plenty of years because of its theme of empathy and the challenges that the characters face regarding it.

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1316 Words | 6 Pages

During the pivotal trial of Tom vs. Mayella Ewell, Tom was convicted of raping Mayella. Mayella claims that Tom forced her, but later the reader finds out that Tom was offering Mayella help and the real attack was Mayella’s abusive father, Bob Ewell. Atticus tries to lend a hand to Tom by defending him with confidence, regardless of what the community has to say to the well-known lawyer. The verdict of the trial is that Tom is guilty and he comes to the sense that in Maycomb, the words of a cruel White man is more trustworthy than the words of a honest Black man. Even Atticus could not demolish the hatred of Blacks in the jury, “Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men’s hearts Atticus had no case” (Lee 323).

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Paragraph #3 Furthermore, the most reoccurring character trait that Atticus portrays is empathy. For instance, Atticus shows Scout how he understands and share the feeling of others when Scout had trouble adapted to a new teacher in Maycomb. Atticus shows empathy towards Radley family because he understands that rumors relating to the Radley family causes the family a great deal of trouble and unwanted attention from curious youngsters such as Jem, Dill, and Scout. An instance in the novel when Atticus showed empathy towards the Radleys is on page 65 “I’m going to tell you something and tell you one time: stop tormenting that man.” Atticus says this quote to Jem when he was trying to get Boo Radley outside.

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In Nixon Waterman’s poem “To Know All is To Forgive All” and Matt Litton’s blog about the importance of compassion, these two works delineate the common theme that compassion is only possible if a person truly knows the other person. This theme is portrayed many times in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird when a character steps into another person's shoes and shows compassion. For instance, when Scout stands “on the Radley’s porch” she starts to visualize her and Jem’s antics from Boo’s point of view (Lee 374). This relates to the theme of the poem because while Scout stood on the porch, she looks at the “‘why’ of things”, for her and the townsfolk actions (Waterman 15). After this event, Scout starts to gain compassion for why Boo

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Atticus displays compassion for others far more than any of the other characters in the novel. Atticus has so much compassion that in fact he is able to teach his own children how to love and respect others. Atticus shows his compassion when he is being called names during the trial, choosing to be kind to those who ridicule him, and to the innocent Tom Robinson. Without Atticus having his compassion, the other characters in the novel will never grow and learn to

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