How Does Lee Use Empathy In To Kill A Mockingbird

English II

13 May 2024

The Showcasing of Empathetic

Development in Mockingbird and Inside Out.

Helen Keller once said, “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.” This quote resembles empathy because it highlights the idea of goodness that comes from within an individual. Empathy is using one’s heart to understand and feel what others are going through. Empathy can’t be felt through touching or seeing, it must be heartfelt to be meaningful and fully understand other’s experiences. We see this in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, where a young girl named Scout learns to recognize and practice empathy through a series of experiences during her Great Depression

Through her intense experiences, readers can see why empathy is needed to understand others. Meanwhile, in a more recent widespread movie, Inside Out, readers meet Sadness, who leads the emotions of an 11-year-old girl named Riley when they move out of San Francisco, who demonstrates the need for being heartfelt when showcasing empathy. Although the novel written by Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, and the movie Inside Out, directed by Pete Docter, may appear different because Mockingbird reveals Scout facing real-world dilemmas leading to a much more gradual change in their understanding of empathy, while Inside Out reveals Sadness facing emotions that she took upon herself to overcome leading to a more intense and quicker change in their understanding of empathy, they both reveal the importance of empathy and how it is crucial to mature and grow up. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout's subtle realization after making a mistake exhibits her growth and understanding; meanwhile, Sadness in Inside Out portrays a lack of comprehension and development when she makes a mistake. In Mockingbird, Scout becomes progressively frustrated with Miss Caroline, Scout’s first-grade teacher, for

However, Sadness in Inside Out, encounters a different problem contrasting to Scout’s, and the impact left on her won’t be as impactful. Joy and sadness are emotions in Riley’s head that control her. They can take Riley’s memories and make them happy or sad. Joy and sadness are both in Riley’s mind in an attempt to keep her core memories safe. Joy is busy trying to keep things positive to allow Riley’s core memories to stay positive. Sadness not knowing her role in Riley, touches one of Riley’s core memories and sets off a chain reaction causing more of Riley’s core memories to turn sad (0:22:30 - 0:23:30). Sadness does not yet have a full grasp on her role and seems clueless about the impact of her actions. She appears frustrated over her actions, wondering why it is making things worse. Her lack of empathy because she misunderstood her role causes her to touch the core memory, turning it from happy to sad. This shows that she has not yet begun developing and lacks empathy as she doesn’t understand her purpose in Riley. Both Scout and Sadness face struggles at the beginning of the