From a young age, many children today are taught the value of empathy and how to be empathetic toward others. According to Oxford Dictionary, empathy is, “The ability to understand and share the feelings of another” (Empathy). Empathy is a characteristic and a developed skill. It can be used by many people of varying ages, and it is beneficial in assessing situations and determining the needs of others. Empathy is a trait that has existed in some since the beginning of the world. It has also appeared as a common theme or motif in many works of writing across many genres of literature. Empathy is a theme that is highlighted through many works of literature.
The Bible is undeniably the most well-known and the most publicized work of literature
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in history. The Bible is responsible for countless religions and even war and conflicts. More specifically, The Gospel According to Matthew is believed to have originated from one of the twelve apostles of Jesus named Matthew. Matthew was believed to have followed Jesus from the early years of His evangelical journey until His crucifixion and death. Although Matthew was thought to have followed Jesus’s work, his gospel is believed to have been published much later in his life around the year 70 A.D. (Gospel). Matthew’s Gospel begins with an account of the Nativity and the infancy of Christ. Then he writes about the proclamation of the Kingdom of Christ. In this passage, written regarding the rules of the Kingdom of God, Matthew writes, (Matthew 7:12). Here Matthew describes the Golden Rule of God’s Kingdom as treating one another as God has treated them; this is the basis of an empathetic attitude and mindset. In The Gospel According to Matthew, this passage is title under the subcategory “Golden Rule.” The previous verse is the only verse under title “Golden Rule.” Althoght Matthew’s gospel was composed over 2000 years ago, its message is still relevant and is a rule to many Christians today. Empathy is valuing and thinking of others in the way God values His children and people on earth. For people to be empathetic, they must treat others the way God has treated them. In contrast to the Word of God, William Shakespeare is arguably the most well-known and the most productive poet and playwright of all time. He wrote more than 30 plays and over 150 sonnets. His most famous works include Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and The Tempest. Shakespeare lived during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England and later in London where he established the Globe Theater. Shakespeare was an active writer until his death in 1616, but his work continued to be published for years to come. In one of his final plays, The Tempest, Shakespeare combines both aspects of his famous tragedies and comedies to create a play about a magic storm created as revenge for a long time friend turned enemy. The Tempest is believed to be the final play of Shakespeare’s writing career because of the last line of the play when the main character asks the audience to, “clap if you believe in fairies,” essentially complementing Shakespeare’s work. In this excerpt and many others throughout the play, Miranda, the daughter of Prospero, the main character, shows empathy to those in the shipwreck caused by the “magic” of her father. She says, (Shakespeare 1:2:5-13). Shakespeare is famously remembered for his messages and motifs, and in this play, he found it important to include empathy as one of his reoccurring themes. In The Tempest, his final play, he found empathy so important that he wrote for one of his characters to wish to perish with those who have perished. Empathy is an important theme throughout this play, and Shakespeare creates a very important character possess empathy. While Shakespeare is most famously known for the amount of literary work he produced, Harper Lee may be just as well-known for her lack of publications.
Throughout a long life, Harper Lee only published two books: To Kill A Mockingbird and the controversial Go Set A Watchman. Even after publishing only two books, Harper Lee is still regarded as one of the greatest American novelists to ever live. To Kill A Mockingbird is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, and it was even made into a Academy Award-Winning Film (Lee). Living in the south during the 20th century and, most notably, the civil rights movement created an awareness of injustice and intolerance in the mind of Harper Lee. Her famous To Kill A Mockingbird is the story of a young girl, Jem, raised in a small southern town, and when the town is struck with tragedy and controversy, a fight between races is created. Jem’s father, Atticus, takes on the task of defending a black man accused of raping a white woman. As a lawyer, Atticus pushes his reputation aside to defend his values. Throughout the process, Atticus teaches Jem the value of equality and justice. Subsequently, Atticus preaches empathy to his children. He tells Jem, (Lee 39). In this quote, Atticus attempts to explain to Jem how to be empathetic toward others. This passage is a way of explaining empathy to a person who may not know or understand it. Atticus may be one of the most famous and charismatic fictional characters in literary history for his views on race and the treatment of others. Empathy is the easiest way to learn how to treat
others. “Treat others like yourself” and “Put yourself in someone’s shoes” are both common topics addressed in many works of literature. Throughout time, one can find empathy or its main basis in literary works from different authors and genres. Empathy is regarded highly in many works; the most praised books contain some aspect of it. God established empathy as the Golden Rule for His people, and many authors have continued to share in His thinking. Empathy is important in learning how to treat others and in assessing their situations. Empathy is common throughout history and is beneficial for all people.
Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird was published in the year of 1960, and is one of the few American classic novels awarded the Pulitzer Prize. The racism that is prevalent in many southern American towns in the 1930s is brought to life with profound imagery in To Kill a Mockingbird. There are several characters in the book, yet the true main character is the narrator's father, Atticus Finch. He is a man of great integrity and intelligence. A very heroic figure in more ways than one, Atticus possesses traits like being principled, determined, and, more importantly, he teaches others. When looking at To Kill a Mockingbird, one can see that Lee uses lots of description, dialogue, and actions to portray Atticus as a heroic individual.
There are some people in this world that can truly understand, or try to understand people and their feelings. They can relate to them on some sort of level. Then there's is plenty of people in this world who have no empathy at all. They don’t feel for people or even try to understand. That's exactly why everyone should read To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The book is about a little girl named Scout and her older brother Jem, who is going through some changes as they grow older in the racist south where their father, a lawyer has a case about a black man raping a white woman. Over the course of the book, both characters grow in great measures. Their father is always teaching them in little ways what’s right/wrong, and what’s good/bad.
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings with others. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, there are many characters who showed the quality of empathy. A few examples who undoubtedly showed empathy were the main characters Jem, Atticus, and the narrator Scout Finch. These characters learned and demonstrated compassion throughout the book.
Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, Harper Lee's, To Kill a Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior, to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, and the struggle between blacks and whites. Atticus Finch, a lawyer and single parent in a small southern town in the 1930's, is appointed by the local judge to defend Tom Robinson, a black man, who is accused of raping a white woman. Friends and neighbors object when Atticus puts up a strong and spirited defense on behalf of the accused black man. Atticus renounces violence but stands up for what he believes in. He decides to defend Tom Robinson because if he did not, he would not only lose the respect of his children and the townspeople, but himself
Childhood is a continuous time of learning, and of seeing mistakes and using them to change your perspectives. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee illustrates how two children learn from people and their actions to respect everyone no matter what they might look like on the outside. To Kill A Mockingbird tells a story about two young kids named Scout and her older brother Jem Finch growing up in their small, racist town of Maycomb, Alabama. As the years go by they learn how their town and a lot of the people in it aren’t as perfect as they may have seemed before. When Jem and Scout’s father Atticus defends a black man in court, the town’s imperfections begin to show. A sour, little man named Bob Ewell even tries to kill Jem and Scout all because of the help Atticus gave to the black man named Tom Robinson. Throughout the novel, Harper Lee illustrates the central theme that it is wrong to judge someone by their appearance on the outside, or belittle someone because they are different.
Empathy is used to create change in the world by reaching out to the emotions of people and attending to them. It is used to help others learn and decide on matters that would not be reasonable without feelings attached to them. Empathy helps bring together communities that would have long ago drifted apart, but instead welcomed all who were different. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. This attribute of human-beings really allows us to not only attend to situations as if they were our own, but it allows us to feel most of what others feel because humans are very much alike in some ways. In many of the articles and novels that we have read this quarter, characters from different pieces of context have portrayed empathy whether it was toward
In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird, empathy is demonstrated throughout the novel. Empathy can be defined as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Atticus tries to explain to Jem and Scout about what he experiences and the things that are happening in Maycomb County. Several characters learn empathy and understand how they feel about certain things and understand the experiences of others. This plays a major role in the novel.
Have American’s lost the ability to show empathy? Although a novice reader may struggle to see how a book written over 50 years ago bears any connection to our modern world, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird could not be any more relevant. The citizens of fictional Maycomb County acknowledge their flawed legal system and unfair social castes as unfortunate truths of life, of which all you can do is accept it as fact. The sole exception is lawyer Atticus Finch, who is in charge of defending the accused in court. After seeing all too many men receive a sentence simply because of the color of their skin, Atticus embarks on a quest to teach Jem and Scout, his children, that prejudice can be fought. By understanding and exposing ourselves to different people, we can free ourselves from prejudice.
Do you not believe we need more compassion and tolerance in the world? Why can we not be like Atticus, Jem or Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee? These characters show great compassion and tolerance throughout the novel despite the society they live in. They have the courage to stand up for what they believe in.
Empathy is imperative to teach kids from a young age in order to help them recognize mental states, such as thoughts and emotions, in themselves and others. Vital lessons, such as walking in another’s shoes or looking at a situation in their perspective, apprehends the significance of the feelings of another. Our point of view must continuously be altered, recognizing the emotions and background of the individual. We must not focus all of our attention on our self-interest. In the excerpt, Empathy, written by Stephen Dunn, we analyze the process of determining the sentiment of someone.
To Kill A Mockingbird embodies those very words in every aspect and exemplifies them through its three main characters: Atticus, Scout, and Jem. Yet, with racism and discrimination seemingly making its way back into the twenty first century with increased shootings of African American males and Donald Trump making an effort to export all Muslims out of America etc., the lessons of compassion, understanding and forgiveness shown in To Kill A Mockingbird could be of great use in today’s society. To Kill A Mockingbird demonstrates the value of compassion and understanding through one, Atticus and his taking of Tom Robinson's trial, two, Atticus and his relationship with Scout, and finally, with Atticus and Mrs. Dubose. To start, for most people, the second they learned of Tom Robinson’s accused crime, they knew his fate had most likely already been decided, jail it would be for Mr Robinson, yet Atticus Finch embraced the challenge and took on his case.
Empathy is the term used for emotional understanding. Empathy is a special skill that many characters in To Kill a Mockingbird possess or develop throughout the course of the story. Harper Lee shows the importance of empathy throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Atticus being empathetic, Atticus teaching the kids to empathize or them empathizing themselves in certain situations. Empathy is truly the great gift of humanity.
“Maturity is when your world opens up and you realize that you are not the center of it.” –M.J. Croan. Maturity comes in steps, where we are always progressing and learning further about ourselves and how others perceive us. Scout gradually becomes more mature throughout the novel, leaving behind her innocence while also reconstructing her empathy and tolerance for others. Similarly Scout and I were both naïve to the world around us, but because of witnessing first-hand the inhumanity around us blatantly displayed a lack of empathy people contain within them. This was a learning experience for myself because it brought home racial discrimination in an event that will forever impact the way I treat others of a different race, color or religion.
In the story, Scout had returned to her first day of school feeling pleasant but discouraged.
“You never really understood a person until you consider things from his point of view—until you climb into his skin and walk around it.” Atticus Finch is a man of extreme integrity. He, as both a lawyer and a human being, stands up for his democratic beliefs and encourages his children to stand up for their own, though they may stand alone. Harper Lee showed how far respect went in To Kill a Mockingbird when Atticus defended Tom Robinson in his rape trial. He did not think twice about being ridiculed by th...