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Empathy Quotes In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Harper Lee and Empathy in “To Kill A Mockingbird”
By Tanaka Rwodzi
In Harper Lee’s critically acclaimed magnum opus “To Kill A Mockingbird;” Lee emphasizes her view on the importance of empathy through how she depicts empathy in regards to the characters Scout, Tom Robinson, and Atticus. “To Kill A Mockingbird” is a novel shown from the view of Scout, a young girl living in the sleepy town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s, and her and her brothers escapades; mainly their captivation over an elusive local resident who doesn’t leave his house, and the drawn-out process of a court case against a black man, Tom Robinson, who is falsely accused of rape. Throughout the novel, Harper Lee emphasizes the importance of empathy to her through how she …show more content…

Arthur Radley, colloquially known as Boo Radley, is a reclusive man who refrains from leaving his house. This is a significant social faux pas in Maycomb, and as a result, he is highly gossiped about by the townspeople and negative rumors constantly circulate regarding him and how he is mentally ill and should be feared. At the beginning of the novel, Scouts perception of Boo Radley is no different. As the novel progresses Scout slowly begins to empathise more with Boo; and she begins to fear him less after various events in the novel, such as the times Boo leaves Scout and Jem presents (59-60) and the time Boo places a blanket on Scout 's shoulders during the fire at Miss Maudie’s house (71-72). Scout’s empathy towards Boo Radley is really only fully developed by the end of the novel when Boo saves Jem and Scout from Bob Ewell. Afterward, when Scout is on the Radley porch after walking Boo Radley home, she contemplates that “Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough” (279). Atticus’s statement was an idiom for empathy. Scout 's response signals her understanding and approval of this. We can see through how Harper Lee emphasizes the build-up towards this moment in the

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Did you know the name of the book “To Kill A Mockingbird” is a direct reference from a famous saying “To kill a mockingbird is a sin? Well now that you know that reference in the book this is exactly how they explain how innocence in this book is stolen away and a sin is committed. Theoretically there are mockingbirds in the story but they are people. These are some of the ways that empathy is directly quoted and showed in the book “To Kill A Mockingbird”. Empathy is what Atticus Finch had for a boy named Tom Robinson he was trying to save him from the death penalty.

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They do not realize that Boo considers them as his children, and that he cares for and loves them. For example, Boo gives precious and valuable personal items to Scout and Jem as a present: "two pieces of chewing gum minus their outer wrappings" (33). Later in the story, Boo covers Scout with a blanket while she is sitting outside so she doesn't get cold, sews Jem's pants back up after they are torn, and when it comes to it, even kills for them. As Scout matures she realizes that Boo Radley was not all that she had been led to believe originally, and she starts to regret her previous assumptions: "I sometimes felt a twinge of remorse, when passing by the old place, at ever having taken part in what must have been sheer torment to Arthur Radley — what reasonable recluse wants children peeping through his shutters, delivering greetings on the end of a fishing pole, wandering in his collards at night?" (242).

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