Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird and Eugenia Coolliers short story “Marigolds” evoke the most empathy by showing the growth of morals like empathy and compassion in the characters. The dynamic characters are used to emphasize how a person can change while symbolism is used to show a deeper meaning in an object both are used by the authors to evoke empathy. To Kill A Mockingbird, a novel published in 1960 about innocence, compassion and hatred. A story about children living in a racist time period trying to get through living there childhood without being influenced by the bad customs. “Marigolds” by Eugenia Cooliers is a short story also written in the 1960’s about a learning compassion and turning into a woman. Lee and Cooliers both inform the reader about the kindness towards humanity that was formed in Scout and Lizabeth. Both authors use a similar style of writing to evoke empathy in the reader. Lee uses many characters to express their empathy towards all human beings. An example …show more content…
Lee uses the mockingbird as a symbol of evoking empathy in the novel. She writes, “I’d rather you shoot a tin can in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after the birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit them, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (Lee119). Atticus is explaining to Scout to not kill the mockingbird because it’s a sin. Lee evokes empathy by using the mockingbird to symbolize innocence. They are innocent creatures who one shouldn’t harm, but appreciate the songs they sing. Besides the mocking bird symbolizing innocence the title also means “to kill innocence”. The town is full of corrupting ideas that the novel refers to Scout as an innocent mockingbird that the towns bad influence kills the childhood innocence. This creates empathy within the reader to understand the innocence of these creatures and to become in favor of the beauty that lies in the