To Kill A Mockingbird was definitely worth the read. Yes I did admit that. Harper Lee does an amazing job expressing themes throughout the book. I chose empathy, and to me empathy is when we consider eachothers attitudes and situations from another viewpoint and identify another perspective to an issue. In the book, Scout learns empathy, Atticus teaches empathy and Tom needs empathy.
So Tom tries to get on Mayella´s good side by helping her with some tasks. While Tom was helping Mayella with some chores she accused Tom of
“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive,” said the Dalai Lama, a monk of the Gelug or “Yellow Hat” school of Tibetan Buddhism. This is a quote about compassion, saying that love and compassion are something humanity cannot survive without. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, compassion is shown in a few different ways including compassion for animals, compassion for friends and family, and compassion for strangers. Showing compassion to animals is seen by some people as a good judge of character.
Another well known lesson taught by Atticus is about empathy. Empathy is defined as: the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. This is shown in chapter three when Scout encountered some problems with her new, first grade teacher, Mrs. Caroline. The little girl was mature well beyond her years, therefore, when she was asked to read out loud, Scout read with near perfect fluency. However, the teacher was surprisingly displeased with her advanced level in literature and flow, and assuming it was Atticus who was educating his daughter, Mrs. Caroline wanted the ‘lessons’ to come to a stop.
She came from a very traumatic background with a passed mother, seven useless siblings, and a father who abuses her. Her father has very immense power over Mayella and she does all of the chores in the yard. She is a very hard-working young woman and tries her best to impress her father. Mayella was completely cut out of the real world and did not even comprehend the thought of kissing and hugging Tom. Mayella was seeking attention and possibly affection because it was never given to her by her father.
But the truth was that Mayella started to have feelings for Tom but since he was black and married she knew they could never be together. One day Mayella asked Tom to help her with a couple of things, but that was not her intention. She blocked him in her house and tried to get him to kiss her.
First, the need for compassion presents itself in difficult ways. Because of the poor manner in which some people are raised, their life tends to be increasingly difficult. During Tom Robinson’s testimony, Scout concludes, “It came to me that Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world” (218). This quote does not only show that Scout thinks Mayella’s lack of a social life makes her lonely, but that she recognizes that no one is advocating
She accused Tom Robinson of rape to cover up for her dad who beat her up. Because Mayella is white, most of the whites agree with what she is saying and that she is telling the truth, on the other hand, the blacks do not agree with Mayella and they agree with Tom. “It is difficult to be compassionate in the midst of suffering.” (Six Habits) Scout wants to feel compassion for Mayella, but she is endangering a man's life by accusing him of a terrible crime he did not commit.
"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. "- Atticus Finch. This famous quote teaches Jean-Louise Finch (Scout) an important lesson about empathy from the beginning with Miss Caroline and reoccurs throughout the novel, anding aiding her coming-of-age in the end as she walks Arthur Radley home. Not only does Scout learn to “walk in another man's skin” but Atticus is forced to teach Scout’s older brother, Jem, the same lesson.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses point of view to show that empathy is developed from maturity and experience. The main protagonist Scout sees her neighbor Boo Radley as a malicious apparition. In the town of Maycomb where Scout and her family live there is rumor of a dangerous beast-like man called Boo Radley who lives near Scout and never leaves his home. Scout, Jem, and Dill are equally terrified of the Radley house and there are several rumors going around that the pecans from the Radley's tree are poisonous and that Boo watches people through their windows at night.
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.
Compassion is obtained from others. Depending on the circumstances, some people acquire compassion, and others do not. Mayella Violet Ewell, an 18-year-old white female, in Harper Lee’s, To Kill A Mockingbird, falsely accuses Tom Robinson, a black man, of sexually assaulting her, which commences a court case in the town of Maycomb, Alabama. Mayella has a tough life at home because of how her father treats her, and her overall reputation in the town of Maycomb is terrible, and she is considered white trash because she does not go to school and lives in bad conditions. Mayella Ewell deserves compassion because of her lack of knowledge.
Imagine if you had a friend who came every summer to fill your head with fantastical stories, go on adventures with you, and maybe even get into a bit of trouble. For Jean Louise (Scout) Finch, Dill is the perfect friend for all those scenarios. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mocking Bird, Dill shows up for the first time in the summer before Scout goes to first grade. He immediately becomes best friends with Jem (Jeremy) and Scout Finch. Every summer after that, Dill goes on countless adventures and runs into far too many mishaps with his friends.
First, she had to make up a story about Tom Robinson because she had kissed a black man, which was frowned upon for a white woman to do. “She was white and she tempted a Negro. She did something that in our society in unspeakable: she kissed a black man”(272). Mayella is also used as an example when she convinces the jury to convict an innocent black man because of Southern Womanhood. “That n***** took advantage of me, an’ if you fine fancy gentlemen don’t wanna do nothin’ about it then you’re all yellow stinkin’ cowards, stinkin’ cowards, the lot of you”(251).
One can view Islam as a terrorist religion, while another can view Islam as a peaceful religion. Neither perspective is wrong of Islam because perspective can be influenced by environment, personal experience, society, family, and a variety of other factors. This is why Marjane Satrapi’s unique influences affect her perspective on how she portrays imperialism, social classes, and revolution in her life and the book Persepolis. The photograph shows the United States and Europe taking the natural resources out of Africa.
