Theme Of Empathy In To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird Analysis

To kill a mockingbird holds many messages in regards to the equality among all people, These messages are communicated through the experiences that the children go through whilst growing up. Throughout the novel, as the children grow up the country; America is also growing, maturing and learning what exactly it means to be equal. The events that the children experience in Maycomb county Alabama lead them to see the world in a different light, these experiences make the children see that the world is not black and white and that society's perception of the world and what is right may be flawed but ultimately, what this novel is trying to communicate to the readers is sympathy and the understanding or empathy of and toward others.

These themes are established early on in the novel, at first when Atticus gives the advice to Scout “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view .

. . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” (39). What Atticus is telling Scout is that you can not judge someone until you have been through what they have been through. This simple advice that Atticus gave to scout in chapter 3 when she was complaining about her teacher and going to school, is what governs Scouts growth and development throughout the novel, this is what teaches scout to live with sympathy and understanding toward others i.e Boo radley and also the Negro community. This advice was given to Scout in the beginning chapters of the novel and has propelled her growth as a person throughout the course of the novel as well.

As the novel progresses Scout starts to take Atticus’s advice to heart and starts to realize that what he had said to her was entirely true. This realization wraps the book up and really demonstrates how Scout grew as a

character.
A boy trudged down the sidewalk dragging a fishing pole behind him. A man stood waiting with his hands on his hips. Summertime, and his children played in the front yard with their friend, enacting a strange little drama of their own invention. It was fall, and his children fought on the sidewalk in front of Mrs. Dubose’s. . . . Fall, and his children trotted to and fro around the corner, the day’s woes and triumphs on their faces. They stopped at an oak tree, delighted, puzzled, apprehensive. Winter, and his children shivered at the front gate, silhouetted against a blazing house. Winter, and a man walked into the street, dropped his glasses, and shot a dog. Summer, and he watched his children’s heart break. Autumn again, and Boo’s children needed him. Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough. (374).
In this scene scout is imagining the world through Boo Radleys eyes, she sees the events of the novel as they would have looked like from Boo's perspective and realizes the silent love and protection that Boo had given Scout and Jem throughout the years. Scout's ability of seeing the world from another person's perspective is the pinnacle of her development as a character and a true measure of how she has grown throughout the novel.
The other children also grow and mature throughout the novel as well and through that process they come across epiphanies of their own. Jem for example, is the first of the three to show signs of development. “He stood there until nightfall, and I waited for him, When we went back in the house I saw that he had been crying, his face was dirty in all the right places but I thought it odd that I had not heard him.” (84). In this scene Jem is realizing that Boo had been leaving the presents in the knothole of the tree for them, Jem and Scout, but now Boo was trapped once more inside the Radley house. Jem is crying because he is understanding that Boo is not the monster that everyone believes him to be and he can not understand how someone with Boo’s reputation can also do something good like care for children.
Furthermore, as Jem matures he comes to a realization of sorts, this realization leaves him quite shaken as his whole world comes undone and he is left to face the new facts. In chapter eleven Jem meets Mrs. Dubose, a racist old lady who represents the true south during the Jim Crow era, a true daughter of the confederate south so to speak. Mrs. Dubose is outraged that a respectable white man such as Atticus would represent and defend a negro.When Mrs. Dubose disrespects Atticus in front of Jem, he loses it and destroys Mrs. Dubose's camellia bushes. As punishment for what Jem did Atticus makes Jem read to Mrs. Dubose every day for a month, a little after the month was up, Mrs Dubose dies and does something very strange. She has her servant give Jem a wooden box with a Camilla inside it and Jem is shocked. “Jem picked up the box and threw it into the fire, he picked up the camilla and when i went off to bed i saw him fingering the wide petals” (149). Jem was convinced that she was a mean spirited racist old hag and was slightly glad that she was dead but when she gave jem the flower it showed him a whole other side of Mrs. Dubose and this caused him to have an epiphany of sorts and made him realize that the world is not black and white but shades of gray.
Lastly, Dill also grew and developed as both a character and a person during his time in Maycomb. At first Dill is introduced as this goofy, immature little boy who is obsessed with Boo Radley, “Let's try to make him come out… I’d like to see what he looks like.” (13). In this scene Dill is proving that he is still undeveloped as a character with the way he is obsessing over something that other people have told him to leave alone thus expressing his childlike immaturity.
As the novel carries on he gains an understanding of the world and begins to question society, more specifically the southern society and its mindset towards other people. “I don't care one speck. It ain right, somehow it ain't right to do ‘em that way hasn't anybody got business talking like that-- it just makes me sick.” (266). Dill is crying because it is making him feel uneasy and essentially “sick” how someone can talk to another human being in the manner that Mr. Gilmore is speaking to Tom Robinson. He doesn't care that Tom is a negro. Dill is realizing that the society that he is accustomed to is flawed and that no man is above another.
The children are not the only ones developing and going through changes throughout the course of the novel, America as a country is also “growing up.” In chapter nine when Atticus accepts the case to defend Tom Robinson, Scout asks him if they are going to win the case he replied “No honey” and when asked why he is fighting he says “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.” (101). Atticus knows that he is going to loses and later on he states that cases like this only last a few minutes but when the trial came around one of the Cunninghams held the jury and deliberated on the decision thus making the trial go for a couple of hours, longer than any case involving a negro had ever lasted in the south. This scene is proof that Americans as a had grown a little and was understanding that all people are equal, but it had not grown fully for Tom was still convicted even though everyone in the courtroom knew he was not guilty. Just the fact that the jury actually considered ruling in Toms favor and listened to his case was a sign that America was growing, despite the outcome.
Additionally, America was gaining empathy for others regardless of their race or status or background. When Boo killed Bob Ewell Atticus and Heck Tate said that Bob fell on his own knife, they were trying to protect Boo Radley from society and their ignorance. Even though Atticus usually sides with the law and follows the book he was willing to look the other way in this instance. Scout describes this as “Well it'd be sort of like shootin a mockingbird wouldn't it?” (370). The reason Atticus is trying to protect Boo is because Atticus knows that Boo is still innocent at heart, he has just been corrupted through no fault of his own. This represents America beginning to understand all sides of the situation and accepting that the world is not black and white.
In conclusion, the children's growth and development as well as the country's growth and development is shown in this novel through what the characters experience and how they react. Everyone learned and matured over the course of this novel, they learned to not judge someone until they have been in their shoes (Empathy and understanding), they also learned that the world is not black and white but shades of grey. Lastly the children as well as the country started to understand that society's point of view was flawed and they began to understand what it truly means to be equal.