Examples Of Empathy In To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, is a coming-of-age story. This story is about the Finch family living in the unjust times of the 1930s in their hometown of Maycomb, Alabama. The main character Scout and her brother Jem are children who grow very much in the three years of their lives in this book. Atticus,the father of the Finch family is a lawyer that is different than everyone else in society and tries to view everyone. Because of Atticus’s morality he does something any other white lawyer wouldn’t do. Through this event the children are shown how the real world is like for the reason that they did not have very much experience before. This story is built upon empathy. Without it nobody would help each other or even understand

We know that Atticus gave empathy to other because he tells Scout 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.” He says by considering things from another person’s point of view it helps you get along better with them which is why Atticus will be kind to anyone and everyone. For the reason that he is very empathetic he defends a black man, Tom Robinson, in court from being accused of raping Mayella Ewell. Atticus does not feel that it is right to assume that the black man is guilty for the color of his skin. Since Atticus had given empathy to the black man something extraordinary happened in the court. For the first time, the court had a little more trouble deciding whether Robinson was guilty or not which meant that there were a few people who actually thought he was innocent which was not a thing for black people to be in a situation like this black man was

A few examples are Mrs. Dubose, Tom Robinson, and Helen Robinson. Mrs. Dubose is given empathy when Atticus allows his children to read to her longer than they should have. It is empathetic because Atticus knew that she was a morphine addict trying to be clean before she died and he knew by having Scout and Jem read to her it would keep her clean longer. Tom Robinson had received empathy as i explained earlier and had also given empathy. We know he gave empathy because he says he felt bad for a white woman which was uncommon. He felt bad for Mayella Ewell because she was lonely and had no help which resulted in helping her out with chores. When Tom Robinson had died his wife was shown empathy as well. She did not have a way to pay the bills and feed her family so Link Deas gives her job although he does not need the extra help because he understands that she needs