Kyd Tian
21th century American Literature
2014/4/26
To kill a mockingbird Draft Essay
Empathy
Empathy is defined as understanding another person's feeling and emotionally placing one's self into another. This trait is a theme in the book To kill a mockingbird, written by Harper Lee in 1960, which talks about the racism and prejudice in 1936 Alabama. In the book, empathy is embodied by Atticus as he says "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)", which means appreciating others' good sides, understanding their bad sides with sympathy and seeing the things from their perspective.
In the book, there are mainly two events happen that Atticus and readers are given the opportunity to walk in some else's shoes. One is when Atticus defends of an Africa American called Tom Robinson who is accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell.
Scott McGregor
Kate (as Mayella)
Tom Robinson BandTom Robinson displays empathy in his own trial. Although almost all the people at the trial and jury stand on Mayella's side, Tom Robinson still show the understanding on Mayella with empathy. "Tom Robinson was probably the only person who ever decent to her. (257)" Even though he notices every time he walk by Mayella's house, Mayella has something for him to do, he give her the help that she needs. "Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world. She was even lonelier than Boo Radley, who had not been out of the house in twenty-five years. (256)" Tom Robinson understands Mayella's loneness by walking in her shoes. What's more, Atticus also show empathy on Tom Robinson, defending a Africa American of raping a white woman which is uncommon in 1930.
The other main...