Empathy In To Kill A Mockingbird

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In the iconic novel , To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the author tries to illustrate a point with the phrase, “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.” — Atticus. The topic she so clearly portrays is empathy, which is a major factor in the story. Atticus, a widowed single father, delivers this piece of advice after his daughter, Scout’s terrible first day with her teacher, Miss Caroline. Her ridiculous demands leave Scout preferring not to return back to school, which she tells her father. With Atticus’ insightful mind, these words flow out. He wished his children would look at life from the perspective of others. He tried to put empathy…show more content…
Now most of the time that was me but, in one particular school it wasn’t me; it was another girl name Lucy. She always seemed to have a horrible time and she was different from the other children she had a speech impediment or as the classmates called her: stutter. When she came to class her head was down, and she almost never spoke, for when she did the class would mock her until the teacher would enter the situation normally with the words, "Children, that's not very nice." She never really helped the situation. She was ridiculed constantly, laughing and pointing was endless. I understood her position and I decided I needed to do something. Lucy already seemed beat down and deleted every day, when she got older would she just take on this demeanor? Lucy seemed to have no friends. I pulled Lucy aside one day and asked her a simple question, “Do you want to be my friend?”. She reacted strangely, almost surprised, then quickly shook her head up and down, I knew that was a definite yes. We weren't publicly friends untill I really knew her, mostly because I was worried what people would think about me. Through meetings we became close friends and had similar interests. She became happier and seemed to want to come to school. After some time, when people would bully her I was the one to tell them to stop, and that hurting someone else doesn't make you “cool”. People stopped bullying Lucy and
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