The Oxford English Dictionary defines empathy as “the power of projecting one’s personality into the object of contemplation.” Furthermore, Katie Rose Guest Pryal proposes that empathy takes action, not just a feeling and emotion. Often confused with sympathy, empathy requires the ability to understand a predicament from another person’s perspective, while sympathy only entails the feeling of pity for another’s difficulty. Although, in To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus advocates to empathize with others, Pryal rather implies that Atticus exhibits sympathy. In addition, the jurors also show this nonexistent empathy through their unwillingness to perceive the world from an opposite race’s point of view. This reluctance, Pryal states, displays a …show more content…
Firstly, the lynch mob at the jail never tests the whites fear of revelation. Hidden throughout the scene, Tom portrays a bone over which the white people fight rather than a true character. Furthermore, Atticus’s inability to see racism as a grand problem and look at the problem outside the community of Maycomb further shows his failure of empathy. A day later, at the trial, Atticus fails to prove that blacks and whites are interconnected, instead shows how the Ewells are disconnected. Subsequently, Atticus never calls on the jurors to empathize with Tom, alternatively, asks them to empathize with himself, and sympathize with Tom. Consequently, the jurors at no time try to engage in cross-racial empathy. Never do Atticus and Tom stand as equals, together fighting for a life. Atticus relies on his own respect and authority to save Tom as he did with the lynch mob the night before. Additionally, when Calpurnia brings Scout and Jem to her church, they realize that there are places too where white people are not welcome. As one of the only voices in the novel presenting a black point of view, Lula yells at Calpurnia for bringing the kids. Unfortunately, Zeebo assures the readers of Lula’s outlier manner, weakening the effect of her