Examples Of Empathy Quotes In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another individual. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee shows empathy in many forms throughout the book. Many characters show empathetic behavior in the story. Examples include when the kids are told not to bother Boo Radley, a second would be Atticus being empathetic to Mrs. Dubose, and the last example would be Atticus powering through being a lawyer for Tom Robinson. To begin, The kids are told not to bother Boo Radley. First, Miss Maudie tells Scout that Boo Radley probably doesn’t come out of his house just because he doesn’t want to. “‘Arthur Radley just stays in the house, that’s all,’ said Miss Maudie. ‘Wouldn’t you stay in the house if you didn’t want to come out?’,” (Lee …show more content…
Dubose. She was a struggling morphine addict, and although she was rude and racist, Atticus admired her for fighting to break her addiction before she passed away. Atticus shows her empathy by being kind to her, although he doesn’t get the same treatment from her. “When the three of us came to her [Mrs. Dubose’s] house, Atticus would sweep off his hat, wave gallantly to her and say, ‘Good evening, Mrs. Dubose! You look like a picture this evening.’,” (Lee 103) shows Atticus’s kindness towards Mrs. Dubose. Also, Atticus doesn’t get mad after Mrs. Dubose “disapproves” of Atticus defending Tom Robinson. Mrs. Dubose calls Atticus a “nigger-lover,” and he doesn’t take any offense to this. After being asked by Scout if he was a nigger-lover, Atticus replies “I certainly am. I do my best to love everybody… I’m hard put, sometimes— baby, it’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you. So don’t let Mrs. Dubose get you down. She has enough troubles of her own,” (Lee 112) which shows Atticus’s empathy towards Mrs. Dubose. In conclusion, Atticus is empathetic toward Mrs. …show more content…
Atticus persevered in the Tom Robinson case, even after being threatened by Bob Ewell. “Mr. Bob Ewell stopped Atticus on the post office corner, spat in his face, and told him he’d get him if it took the rest of his life,” (Lee 221) is an example of what Atticus had to put up with during the case. He kept working on the case and giving it his all, even with Bob Ewell’s threats. In addition, Atticus also came up with lots of good points and evidence, even knowing he wasn’t going to win the case. Some examples would be pointing out that nobody called a doctor, and the fact that Mayella was beaten on the left side of her face when Tom’s left arm was crippled. "Atticus was trying to show, it seemed to me, that Mr. Ewell could have beaten up Mayella. That much I could follow. If her right eye was blacked and she was beaten mostly on the right side of the face, it would tend to show that a left-handed person did it." (Lee 180) To conclude, Atticus shows empathy to Tom Robinson by being such a good lawyer for him knowing he wouldn’t
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