To Kill A Mockingbird Empathy Quotes

“Traits like… empathy are easily overlooked- but it’s immensely important to find them in your closest relationships.” (Laura Linney) Many characters in To Kill A Mockingbird showed empathy but there was one who showed the most. To Kill A Mockingbird took place in Alabama during the Great Depression. Told by a woman named Scout remembering her childhood. Scout, her older brother Jem, their father Atticus and the rest of their town were deeply influenced by the world around them. Jem demonstrated the greatest amount of empathy throughout the book. His empathy was shown when he found out Mrs. Dubose, his mean old neighbor was a drug addict, how he reacted after a trial and his empathy to another neighbor named Boo Radley. Jem learned how to empathize with others by witnessing compassion. Jem
Atticus taught Jem how to be very tolerant of others. Atticus said in court while he was defending a black man, "Which, gentlemen, we know is in itself a lie as black as Tom Robinson's skin, a lie I do not have to point out to you. You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women—black or white” Jem understood what his father taught him and when the black man, Tom Robinson was found guilty, Jem broke down in tears. “His face was streaked with angry tears as we made our way through the cheerful crowd. “It ain’t right,” he muttered, all the way to the corner of the square where we found Atticus waiting.” (Lee 215) This shows how empathetic Jem was to Tom even though Tom is looked down upon in their prejudice town. Jem grew up in a hate filled and prejudice town yet he still empathized and tolerated with the looked- down upon blacks, a rude woman, and a supposedly crazy man. Jem was a young boy living in a prejudiced world yet he had the power to empathize like no