Empathy In To Kill A Mockingbird Essay

The story takes place in a town called Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1930s. Despite the whites treating the African Americans like subordinates, the townsfolk treat each other like family, with the exception of the Ewell family. In the beginning of the book Harper Lee illustrates empathy is learned through each character passing it on to each other as if it were a tradition. In one of the scenes where Scout(Jean Louise Finch) our protagonist has a confrontation with her teacher Miss Caroline , Atticus gives her the most important advice. Atticus promptly tells scout can get better along if she can view though Miss Caroline point of view: “‘first of all, if you can learn a simple trick, scout, you’ll get along alot better with all kinds of folks.
With Jem destroying her flowers he reads to her and so does Scout. Seeing Mrs. Dubose lying in bed, looking unhealthy, Scout states that she feels sorry to Mrs.Dubose. Feeling sympathetic, but this is related to empathy:”In the corner of the room was a brass bed, and in the bed was Mrs. Dubose. I wondered if Jem’s activities had put her there, and for a moment I felt sorry for her”(141). In the first impression of Mrs.Dubose Jem and Scout view her as woman with no boundaries to her words and is the most racist woman. But once Scout sees Mrs.Dubose to the brink of death she starts to feel sorry for her. Later long in the story Scout and Jem learn that Mrs.Dubose was a mouthing addict and was battling her addiction with Jem reading to her. This shows how Scout moral education changed over time and how she is now starting to see racism and ignorance in Maycomb
As the novel moves begins, Jem and Scout make description of