Atticus Empathy Analysis

Isolated from reason and surrounded by barbarism, Simon and Atticus sacrifice their lives to the struggle between authority and empathy. They advocate for unfettered truth, free of amendment by the hypocrisy of a prejudiced society. However, as Golding and Lee illustrate, the inherent nature of man gravitates to the benefits of a lifestyle that advocates for authority and prejudice. Through their attempt to emancipate the minds of others, Simon and Atticus reveal the counterintuitiveness and failure of a society that suppresses empathy and compassion. To create peace and dispel the innate darkness of man, people must fight against their primal instincts and cultivate a culture of understanding early on in their lives. Simon and Atticus challenge

As people subliminally coalesce under the establishment of the authoritative ideas of Jack and Bob Ewell, the innocent suffer. The Lord of the Flies himself says “I’m the reason why it’s no go, why things are what they are”. Figuratively, the Lord of the Flies, the lack of empathy, kills the boy with the Mulberry birthmark, Simon, Piggy and Tom Robinson. The inability of society to provide care for all people, to provide ‘“equal rights for all, special privileges for none”, through negligence or prejudice creates conflict between peoples. As a result of such conflict in Lord of the Flies “the island was scorched up like dead wood [and] Simon was dead”. Empathy on the other hand, helps create order between people because “[one] never really understand[s] a person until [he] consider[s] things from his point of view, until [he] climb[s] into his skin and walk[s] around in it”. During, Tom Robinson’s trial, Atticus with his understanding of the tensions in the courtroom, and his “infinite capacity for calming turbulent seas, [made] a rape case as dry as a sermon”. Most would have an aggressive demeanor towards disrespectful individuals such as Bob and Mayella but Atticus has “nothing but pity in my heart for the chief witness for the state”, his empathy ultimately prevents chaos and violence. The counterintuitiveness of empathy to a stable

As Ralph, “the boy with fair hair” matured to the boy with “matted hair”, his perspective matured from haughty to compassionate. Early on, Ralph believes that “Piggy was an outsider, not only by accent, which did not matter, by fat, and ass-mar, and specs, and certain disinclination for manual labor”. He rejected Piggy’s “proffer of acquaintance”. He believed “this was [the children’s] island, [that] it was a good island”, that, “until the grown-ups come to fetch [them], [they] will have fun". However, by the end of the novel, Ralph understood that deep down the children fear the island, “the littluns, even some of the others, [talk and scream] as if it wasn’t a good island”. Empathy develops through experience and understanding of truth. Scout thought “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch”. At the beginning of the novels, Ralph nor Scout understood the true nature of Piggy or Boo. However, their respective experiences mean “the end of innocence”. Scout and Ralph begin to differentiate between empathy and authority, good and evil. Scout realizes “[Boo] was real nice, and most people are, when you finally see them”. Ralph recognizes the importance of his “true, wise friend called Piggy”. Yet concurrently, they see “the darkness of man’s heart”. Man discriminates even when doing so harms