An Analysis of Empathy in To Kill Mockingbird Atticus Finch once claimed that “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 33). The novel To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee, who intertwines the themes of empathy and prejudice to exhibit the development of children in the 1930s. The storyline takes place during the 1930s in the small conservative town of Maycomb, Alabama. Empathy is used in the novel to display the differences between characters and how children have an ethical sense of justice and take others' emotions into account. When comparing three characters, Scout, Dill, and Atticus, the central idea of the story can be …show more content…
Atticus Finch provides examples for his children to be more empathetic. He teaches Scout to get along with others because you never really know them until you “climb into (their) skin and walk around” (Lee 33). At the end of the novel, Boo Radley asks Scout, “Will you take me home?” He almost whispered it, in the voice of a child afraid of the dark.” Scout led him through the house but claimed that she would “never lead him home” she then took his arm and had her lead him because she knew that “if Miss Stephanie Crawford was watching from her upstairs window, she would see Arthur Radley escorting me down the sidewalk, as any gentleman would do” (Lee 319-320). She feels empathy and wants to protect him from rumors. Scout refuses to lead him because she puts herself into his perspective and knows that others would talk if she leads. She used to be terrified of Boo and made her way closer to his …show more content…
He was close with both Jem and Scout. When scheming to get Boo to leave his house, Jem says that he is similar to a turtle in his shell and that they need to light a match to get him out. Dill starts retaliating and disapproves of this idea. He does not want to hurt Boo Radley. Dill