Examples Of Empathy In To Kill A Mockingbird

One cannot truly empathize with others “until [they] climb into [other’s] skin and walk around in it” (Lee 39). This inability to empathize is due to the fact that minors are self-centered and often only consider themselves, so they are unable to relate with other individuals and their struggles. This absence of empathy is a direct result of a lack of maturity. When Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird in the 1950s, humanity, as a whole, lacked empathy. Sadly, racism was a cruel yet common part of everyday life. Whites had no concern or care for any black people. Black people were treated as animals. This directly correlates with the manner of which the children in the novel treat the other characters. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird,

Subsequently, the narrator, Scout, along with her witty brother, Jem, and her adventurous pal, Dill, often treat others like animals. When trying to get their mysterious and shy neighbor to emerge from his house, they attempt to slide him a note attached to a fishing pole. The first time they treat others like animals is when “[they] are going to give a note to Boo Radley”(62). They choose to ostracize Boo instead of aiming to understand his experiences. Harper lee demonstrates how Scout views other by incorporating Boo Radley’s subplot. This subplot directly correlates to the main plot where a black man, Tom Robinson, is dehumanized by those who do not understand, nor care, about his circumstances. Thus, Lee wants the reader to understand that naive children, who have not matured, do not attempt to empathize with those who suffer. Furthermore, the children break Boo’s wanted privacy by “put[ting] the note on the end of a fishing pole and stick[ing] it through the shutters”(62). Boo is shy and does not want to come out. Wrongly, they are too afraid of Boo to give it to him in person; instead, they have to give it to him as far away as possible due to their wrong, accusatory, and ignorant belief that Boo is a ravenous monster. The fishing pole is a symbol for imbruting and dehumanizing innocents, such as Boo Radley. Harper Lee

There are several points in the story where Jem has grown to become a responsible young man and Scout is still juvenile girl. Scout is uniformed of what coming of age is; thus, she is unaware of why Jem is maturing. She thoroughly believes that Jem’s newfound intellect “[is] probably a part of the stage he [is] going through, and [Scout] wishe[s] [Jem] would hurry up and get through it” (320). Scout is disappointed when Jem gives up his childish plans and accepts adulthood. It is hard for her to no longer have an immature companion to carry out their foolish schemes. Harper Lee uses Jem as a character in order to show this process of how empathy arises with maturity. Furthermore, Lee uses these differing levels of empathy in order to juxtapose and contrast juveniles to developing adults.Scout still has no regard to other’s lives, but sympathy has emerged from Jem. For example, Scout was trying to smash a roly-poly but, “[her] hand [is] going down on [the insect] when Jem spoke[,]... ‘Don’t do that’”(319). Even though the bug may be insignificant to Jem, he still cares and tends to the roly-poly while Scout is under the impression that it’s life is small and unimportant. All the facts considered, Lee juxtaposes contradicting ages to illustrate that more mature individuals tend to be more empathetic. Only a few pages later, Tom Robinson, a black man wrongly convicted of rape, gets shot in prison seventeen