Examples Of Empathy In To Kill A Mockingbird

Why Empathy and Tolerance Affect Everyone One must look through many perspectives to truly understand another’s actions when it seems they are in the wrong. In Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mocking Bird,” two children of a white lawyer in the 1930s learn how unfair the court system is towards people of color through the court case of Tom Robinson. Scout and Jem become more intellectually mature by gaining tolerance and empathy for those around them by learning to look at situations from other people's points of view. Scout and Jem gain tolerance for others and their situations as they continue to meet and connect with a diverse cast, including Tom Robinson, an unfairly convicted black man, and Boo Radley, their misunderstood neighbor. After

“I always thought Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world, at least that’s what they seemed like…Who in this town did one thing to help Tom Robinson, just who?” (Lee 246). At this point, Jem is starting to realize the world isn’t such a great place after all, and justice isn’t always served. The whole court scene shows that Jem is one of the most tolerant people towards black people, since he thinks it’s extremely unfair to rule in favor of skin color. Throughout the book, Jem and Scout have multiple encounters with Boo Radley but never face to face. The first time they meet face to face is after Bob tries to attack them for being mad about the trial, but fails and dies. When they’re sitting in Jem’s room after his arm is broken, Scout, Jem, and Atticus find out that it was not Jem who killed Bob, but Boo. This changes Scout’s previous thoughts about how Boo was a crazy person, and makes her regret their previous actions in trying to break into his house. “Boo was our neighbor…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 320). In the end of the book, Scout finally matures enough to realize that herself, Jem, and Dill

On Scout’s first day of school, she meets her new teacher, Miss Caroline.Unfortunatley, however, Miss Caroline is upset that she already knows how to read and write difficult words, and tells her to stop letting her father teach her as it’ll interfere with her reading. Scout later complains about it to Atticus and explains how she needs to empathize with her. “First of all,’ he said, ‘if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, 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 it.” (Lee 33). Scout is upset that her teacher is treating her this way, and doesn’t give a second to look through her perspective. After talking to Atticus about her dilemma, she empathizes a bit more with Miss Caroline because she understands looking through things in different points of views helps her understand situations better. After all, Miss Caroline couldn’t know Scout in just one day, so she couldn’t help but not understand that Scout could read. Jem on the other hand, does not need Atticus to explain empathy to him. He immediately empathizes with Tom after learning he was only ruled guilty because he was black. “Reverend, but don’t fret, we’ve won on it,’ he said wisely. ‘Don’t see how any jury could convict on what we heard–” (Lee 238).