Examples Of Empathy In To Kill A Mockingbird

Scout is initially naïve and does not think about how her actions affect others, showing that children can be offensive when their naïveté equates to a lack of empathy. For example, when Jem invites Walter Cunningham over for dinner, Scout is not accustomed to the way he eats. She says to Calpurnia, “But he’s gone and drowned his dinner in syrup, he’s poured it all over” (Lee 32). Scout’s youth prevents her from understanding the differences in other people’s life circumstances, including Walter’s. Her family is wealthier than the Cunninghams and she knows proper manners; Walter, on the other hand, likely does not. Scout’s age, combined with a notable gap in background and experience leads Scout to lack empathy for Walter. This lack of empathy

When Scout is unable to understand why her teacher, Miss Caroline, does not want her to read at home anymore, Atticus wants her to see the situation from Miss Caroline’s point of view. He tells Scout, “If you can learn a simple trick, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. 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” (39). The “simple trick” Atticus is talking about is empathy. Even though Atticus may not necessarily agree with Miss Caroline’s teaching style, he wants Scout to understand why Miss Caroline is telling her not to read at home. Likewise, Atticus wants Scout to have empathy for Arthur Radley. Scout uses rumors about Arthur Radley to judge him and pictures him as a horrible monster but if Scout is able to gain empathy, she will not allow previous judgements to cloud the truth any longer. Therefore, if someone has empathy they can gain insight into the other person’s viewpoint and ultimately have a better understanding of that

While Scout is walking past the Radley house she narrates, “I sometimes felt a twinge of remorse, when passing by the old place, at ever having taken part in what must have been sheer torment to Arthur Radley” (324). Scout’s remorse for what they did to Arthur Radley shows that she has developed concern for other people’s feelings. Here, Scout is putting herself into Arthur’s shoes to think about how he must have felt when they were playing tricks on him and trying to get him to come out. Also, she now calls him “Arthur” instead of “Boo”, which shows that she has considered how she would feel if everyone was calling her by a hurtful and judgmental name. Significantly, if Scout did not have Atticus to teach her these important lessons, she would not have learned to be compassionate and to take other people’s feelings into consideration. Scout’s growth can also be seen after she walks Arthur home. She stops for a second and thinks: “Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives. But neighbors give in return. We never put back into the tree what we took out of it: we had given him nothing, and it made me sad” (Lee 373). Scout’s change in perspective is now clear. Since it made her sad that they gave him nothing, she feels