According to Atticus, “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.” How is empathy towards
others demonstrated or learned by characters such as Atticus, Scout, Jem, Dill, or Miss Maudie?
Empathy has been considered by many critics, as the central theme of the novel, where Atticus
Finch possesses the “unwavering powers of courage, empathy and moral fortitude to fight
against racial prejudice.” (Robin Winter) Consequently, Atticus Finch serves as a role model to
many characters in the novel especially Miss Maudie, while also teaching the young children
lessons on empathy towards others especially with regard to racism and Boo Radley.
Atticus Finch gives the impression of a saint in Maycomb, empathetic to people’s sufferings and
going out of his way to help them. It is Atticus himself who teaches Scout the lesson of “…never
really understand(ing) a person until you consider things from his point of view –until you climb
into his skin and walk around in it.”, which paints him as a role model to other characters in the
novel. However, instead of just practicing his own beliefs on empathy, he attempts to invoke the
feeling in his own children especially with their wild adventures revolving around Boo Radley’s
town legend. When he finds the children playing and enacting a dramatized version of Boo
Radley’s story, he chastises them while emphasizing that “..putting his (Boo Radley) life’s
history on display for the edification of the neighborhood.”, was not morally right since it was
meddling into the Radley’s business and that they were failing to look at it from Boo Radley’s
perspective.
Atticus is also painted as the town hero in the novel, fighting for the good, against all odds and
remarks made by the town’s people, who let stigmatized racism overcloud their empathy for
others. Atticus seems to be a model who attempts to change the perspective of the people’s view,
, by exposing racial prejudices in the American legal system and displaying the view that the
victim always has to be white while the defendant is always a black individual. His empathy is
evident in the mere fact that he chose to defend Tom Robinson, despite the hateful comments
and threats he and his children received. Yet, the readers can see that Atticus treats everyone,
regardless of color or socio-economic background, the same way, because he tries to see the
other’s perspective. On Tom Robinson’s death, he goes to Robinson’s wife himself to break the
news and console her, going to the black’s ghetto and treating her the same way he would treat
any neighbor in Maycomb. What would have disgusted some people in Maycomb, he does
fearlessly, simply because he sympathizes with everyone.
Scout is, however, in comparison with Atticus, an immature and innocent child who is unable to
see racial or socioeconomic differences between people, simply because Atticus taught her to see
the world in black and white, without the already established perceptions of the world. Scout is
initially incapable of empathy, which can be seen in the way she is not respectful and nice to
Walter Cunnigham’s table manners, because she does not seem to see that an individual's
different socio-economic background would mean that one would have to treat them differently.
Her feelings do not waver even when she expresses the desire to play with Walter Cunnigham
and Aunt Rachel refuses because she considers the entire family as dirty and trashy.
Consequently, she is unable to empathize with Boo Radley too, who she thinks is a monster who
runs around town at nigh-fall haunting other people. Despite her curiosity, Scott is reluctantly
dragged along in Jem and Dill’s adventures to get Boo Radley out of his house. Her empathy of
Boo Radley is realized at the end of the novel where she goes to drop Boo Radley off to his
house and sees the view of the neighborhood from the Radley porch and visualizes Boo Radley’s
perspective of the world and why he refuses to come out. He wants to stay in. Scout is finally
point of view –until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” How is empathy towards
others demonstrated or learned by characters such as Atticus, Scout, Jem, Dill, or Miss Maudie?
Empathy has been considered by many critics, as the central theme of the novel, where Atticus
Finch possesses the “unwavering powers of courage, empathy and moral fortitude to fight
against racial prejudice.” (Robin Winter) Consequently, Atticus Finch serves as a role model to
many characters in the novel especially Miss Maudie, while also teaching the young children
lessons on empathy towards others especially with regard to racism and Boo Radley.
Atticus Finch gives the impression of a saint in Maycomb, empathetic to people’s sufferings and
going out of his way to help them. It is Atticus himself who teaches Scout the lesson of “…never
really understand(ing) a person until you consider things from his point of view –until you climb
into his skin and walk around in it.”, which paints him as a role model to other characters in the
novel. However, instead of just practicing his own beliefs on empathy, he attempts to invoke the
feeling in his own children especially with their wild adventures revolving around Boo Radley’s
town legend. When he finds the children playing and enacting a dramatized version of Boo
Radley’s story, he chastises them while emphasizing that “..putting his (Boo Radley) life’s
history on display for the edification of the neighborhood.”, was not morally right since it was
meddling into the Radley’s business and that they were failing to look at it from Boo Radley’s
perspective.
Atticus is also painted as the town hero in the novel, fighting for the good, against all odds and
remarks made by the town’s people, who let stigmatized racism overcloud their empathy for
others. Atticus seems to be a model who attempts to change the perspective of the people’s view,
, by exposing racial prejudices in the American legal system and displaying the view that the
victim always has to be white while the defendant is always a black individual. His empathy is
evident in the mere fact that he chose to defend Tom Robinson, despite the hateful comments
and threats he and his children received. Yet, the readers can see that Atticus treats everyone,
regardless of color or socio-economic background, the same way, because he tries to see the
other’s perspective. On Tom Robinson’s death, he goes to Robinson’s wife himself to break the
news and console her, going to the black’s ghetto and treating her the same way he would treat
any neighbor in Maycomb. What would have disgusted some people in Maycomb, he does
fearlessly, simply because he sympathizes with everyone.
Scout is, however, in comparison with Atticus, an immature and innocent child who is unable to
see racial or socioeconomic differences between people, simply because Atticus taught her to see
the world in black and white, without the already established perceptions of the world. Scout is
initially incapable of empathy, which can be seen in the way she is not respectful and nice to
Walter Cunnigham’s table manners, because she does not seem to see that an individual's
different socio-economic background would mean that one would have to treat them differently.
Her feelings do not waver even when she expresses the desire to play with Walter Cunnigham
and Aunt Rachel refuses because she considers the entire family as dirty and trashy.
Consequently, she is unable to empathize with Boo Radley too, who she thinks is a monster who
runs around town at nigh-fall haunting other people. Despite her curiosity, Scott is reluctantly
dragged along in Jem and Dill’s adventures to get Boo Radley out of his house. Her empathy of
Boo Radley is realized at the end of the novel where she goes to drop Boo Radley off to his
house and sees the view of the neighborhood from the Radley porch and visualizes Boo Radley’s
perspective of the world and why he refuses to come out. He wants to stay in. Scout is finally
