To Kill a Mockingbird Compassion Analysis

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Nobel Peace Prize winner, Desmond Tutu, once said “frequently people think compassion and love are merely sentimental. No! They are very demanding. If you are going to be compassionate, be prepared for action” (values.com). When one thinks of compassion, sympathy and sorrow come to mind. However, compassion also is accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. This can be accomplished by standing up for what one believes is right. Throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee deeply develops her theme that compassion is understanding someone else’s perspective and using this compassion to stand up against society.
To deeply develop her theme Lee manipulates Atticus’s lessons to portray a meaning of compassion. In part one of the novel Scout is starting to grow and learn about the compassion in Maycomb county. The compassionate influences Maycomb has on Scout are negatively impacting her attitude. In a passage correcting Scout’s behavior, Atticus scolds,“We couldn’t operate a day without Cal, have you ever thought of that? You think about how much Cal does for you and you mind her, you hear” (33). With the repetition of “you”, Atticus is telling Scout that she has to be the one giving compassion. In Maycomb compassion is given to those who rarely deserve it. It is those who stand against society that should direct the compassion. They will give the compassion to those who need it the most, like Mayella. Atticus compels Scout to stand by her beliefs, for then compassion will come easier. To look at someone elses perspective and bestow compassion upon them, does not come easy. In a passage profound to the novel, Atticus reveals, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of v...

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...efits the kids lives by standing up for what he believes in. Atticus’s positive benefit and Tom’s negative benefit express the way society can alter your compassion at the push of a button.
Harper Lee develops her theme compassion through lessons from Atticus and negative and positive experiences characters have faced in the novel. Atticus holds compassion, while Mayella, Scout, Tom and Bob are in need of compassion throughout the whole novel. This goes to show that, compassion challenges each character to face society head-on, turn sympathy into action and withstand the obstacles life will throw at you. It is not sorrow and sympathy left to sit and hollow. Compassion is a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, and then accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.

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