Importance Of Empathy In To Kill A Mockingbird

Many people don’t understand the importance of empathy and a lack of it can lead to prejudice and a misunderstanding of one’s character. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a story of learning to be empathetic and being able to walk in someone else’s shoes. Scout and her brother Jem, as well as their neighbor Dill, try to find out about the town legend: Boo Radley. Everyone sees him as a monster but as time goes on Boohelps the kids from the shadows, eventually saving their lives from a man who holds a grudge against their father. “Marigolds” a short story by Eugenia Collier, is about a girl who lives in Maryland during the great depression and whose life is changing too fast for her to handle. Because of this, she takes out all of her confusion

When the reader is first introduced to Tom Robinson we learn that he has been accused of forcing himself on a woman. It seems that he has accepted the situation that he is in, he understands that his fate is held in his lawyer's hands. Atticus is scout's father and a well-known and dependable lawyer in their small town of Maycomb. Tom Robinson is given a trial and Atticus tries his best to defend him but unfortunately, the jury decided that Rom Robinson is guilty despite very convincing evidence that proves he is not guilty when the jailers were talking tom away Atticus tells him that"It's not time to worry yet," and reassures him that "We're not through yet. There'll be an appeal, you can count on that.“ later in the novel Atticus learns that tom Robinson was killed because he tried to escape prison Atticus and says ''I guess tom was tired of white men’s chances and preferred to take his own” this shows that for a short amount of time, Tom Robinson did have hope in Atticus but unfortunately he gave up hope and tried to do it his own way. This evokes empathy in readers because this is a common occurrence in many situations and this may have happened to the reader or someone close to

This conflict is one many people around Lizabeth's age face often, this can stimulate empathy in the people who have experienced this conflict growing into adults or simply growing as a person. However, I believe that Harper Lee's work in To Kill a Mockingbird has better character development as well as better more realistic conflicts. I believe this because one of the main plot points, Tom Robinson's court case, displays a real and prevalent conflict in many parts of the world but more so in the United States of America; racism. This conflict has unfortunately affected a large majority of America and its citizens and has taken many lives throughout history because of this many more people can better relate to this