From getting to know someone more on a personal level instead of hearing judgements from other people. An individual is able to neutralize prejudice by understanding how a person lives and feeling empathy for them. Author, Harper Lee has demonstrated this through her Pulitzer Prize winning novel: To kill a mockingbird. Since its first publication in 1960 it has sold over 40 million copies world-wide. Harper Lee wrote this book during marches regarding the civil rights movement for racial equality between black people and white people in the United States. She wrote this as a statement to the 1960’s civil rights movement, although it as set in the 1930’s, this novel has a lot to say about fair treatment of all people no matter what social class or race.
Within Lee’s novel it is quoted in chapters 2-3, Scout rubs Walter Cunningham’s nose in the dirt for getting Scout into trouble at school but Jem intervenes and invites Walter to dinner. When Scout sees Walter spread molasses over his meat and vegetables she criticises him for how he is eating his food. This is when Atticus explains to Scout how people are brought up differently and “You never really understand a person until you climb into his skin and walk around in it”. The technique used is a metaphor about truly understanding the way of life for others, helping Scout to learn a lesson of having empathy for other individuals. This quote/chapter summary reflect the original essay statement
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In ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ social and racial stereotyping is overcome through empathy whether it affects the characters or the readers of the novel. Ultimately, Harper Lee has created a sense of empathy throughout the novel through the use of offsetting the use of prejudice in our daily