Why Is Empathy Important In To Kill A Mockingbird

Empathy is having the ability to understand the feelings of others.It is a good quality to have and Empathy plays a central role in the development of Harper Lee's novel ''To Kill a Mockingbird.'Empathy is defined as having the ability to share in the way a person feels. When someone feels empathy toward another human being they are, in effect, letting them know that they have walked in their shoes and have tried to see things from their point of view.The literary element point of view is used by Harper Lee to convey the idea that perspective, or having an understanding of how a situation appears to another person, is important when trying to understand the words and actions of certain people. The entire story is built around the coming of age of Scout Finch as her point of view about the world matures. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch represents what it

Empathy makes people understand each other's feelings. (“”You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb in his skin and walk around in it” (Chapter 3). In this quote the literary element point of view is demonstrated when Atticus tells his children to think of other people’s feelings.This shows how Atticus is teaching his children to walk in other people's shoes. He is giving them an example of other people's feelings.Another example showing empathy is when Miss Mudie is teaching the children that mockingbirds are also innocent.Miss Maudie explains something Atticus said to Scout and Jem, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird”(Chapter 10).This shows that Miss Maudie is trying to teach them a lesson with the metaphor of not harming a mockingbird because of their