...of characters in the book who demonstrate and learn the necessity of empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Empathy shows up in the book several times; it is one of the main themes. Harper Lee shows empathy through her character. Atticus shows empathy to Mayella, Jeremy (Jem) to Arthur (Boo) Radley, and Scout to Boo. First, empathy is demonstrated when Atticus lets Bob Ewell threaten to kill him and lets Bob spit in his face. Despite having this happen to Atticus, he does not get angry or fight back. Instead,...
Words: 565 - Pages: 3
...To Kill a Mockingbird indeed has many different themes that one can interpret from the extraordinary storytelling written by Harper Lee, but there is one that sticks out in particular. One of many themes that can be portrayed is that of empathy and perspective. Empathy is an act of kindness that can be seen in practically everyone, there is no one who is so emotionally jaded that they have never felt for another and felt empathy towards them. In the story of To Kill a Mockingbird, you can go from feeling your heart warming up from the sweet and kind spirit of Scout, to the heart wrenching feeling when held witness to the sickening inhumane acts played out by many of the adults in Maycomb County. Throughout the story, numerous times you see acts of kindness, from both the children and adults, but all the meanwhile...
Words: 598 - Pages: 3
...Why is it that society is self centered? People always accumulate themselves as the right individual during conflict. They never consume the information being presented in front of them. This is also the main reason why racism is highly prevalent within society. The novel, ¨To Kill a Mockingbird,¨ that was well written by the author, ¨Harper Lee,¨ accurately demonstrated how people easily lose their sense of empathy and become very prejudice. Within Tkam, empathy is greatly influence through the characters Atticus, Scout, and Dolphus Raymond by including the primary issue of racism and how it affected them within their home town, Maycomb County. First and foremost, In the novel, ¨To Kill a Mockingbird,¨ empathy is first presented by the character,...
Words: 1070 - Pages: 5
...America is an empathy-driven society. American politicians, pastors and psychologists consistently preach the importance of empathy in creating a fair society for everyone. In “ The Baby in The Well,” an essay for the May 20, 2013 issue of The New Yorker, Canadian American Psychologist Paul Bloom makes a shocking case against empathy. He begins making his case by defining empathy, and admitting its conventional wisdom. Bloom then presents numerous situations in which empathy can mislead or has misled us. Finally, he wraps up his argument by asserting that while empathy will drive us to empathize only with someone we identify with, reasoning will ensure that we make the right decisions for the better of society and the world. Bloom achieves...
Words: 1587 - Pages: 7
...Kill A Mockingbird Essay What is Empathy? Empathy is the ability to step into another person’s shoes and understand what they did, or why they choose to do something. Not everybody can have empathy, only people who are willing to open their minds to different opinions and see what they might not have seen before. While showing empathy you can change a person's life for the better. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee reveals that showing empathy can give hope to someone in despair. Empathy can simply mean making somebody’s day or it can have a deeper meaning like trying to save somebody's life. In the beginning of To Kill a Mockingbird, there are a lot of examples of empathy simply just making somebody’s day. For example, “Jem suddenly grinned at him. ‘Come on home to dinner with us, Walter,’ he said. ‘We’d be glad to have you’” (Lee 23). Here, Jem knows that Walter doesn’t get the three meals a day. So Jem, being the way he was brought up by Atticus, politely asks Walter if he would like to enjoy a meal with the Finches. Another example of empathy making somebody’s day would be when Dolphus...
Words: 670 - Pages: 3
...The Help and To Kill a Mockingbird both have many similarities in how prejudice and empathy were displayed throughout the story. Both of the stories were set in the time of segregation in the Southern United States. It also shows the similarity of African-Americans as caretakers or housekeepers – Calpurnia in To Kill a Mockingbird and Aibileen is only one of the examples in The Help. The settings were also similar, a part of a town was where whites lived and part of a town was where African-Americans lived, but there was a twenty-year difference of when the books took place. Prejudice was mainly shown throughout the storied by the way whites treated the African-Americans. In The Help, there were multiple examples of prejudice: African-Americans were not allowed to us the same bathroom as whites and how African-Americans could not use the same plates as whites. The acts of prejudice often stemmed from the fact that whites believed that African-Americans contained diseases, a statement that was supported by no facts. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the main example of prejudice was when Tom Robinson was convicted of raping a white girl when...
Words: 570 - Pages: 3
...Azar Nafisi writes about how she believes that through empathy we have deep connections to everyone. In her This I Believe Essay, she explains that empathy cannot be accomplished unless we enter someone else’s world through imagination. During the essay empathy is described as the “shock of recognition.” I guess I see why she called it a shock, we take in a huge amount of emotion when we begin to empathize. She talks about the “mysterious connections that link individuals to each other despite their vast differences.” I think that these mysterious connections are what this This I Believe essay is really about and empathy is how we make these connections. She gives many examples of how we can make these connections through empathy. One example that was given was about a woman in Kabul who was shot to death for wearing clothes deemed inappropriate. She says, we cannot empathize with situations like this by being politically correct, but only through placing ourselves in other people’s shoes. The author really gives a new perspective on empathy. I got to admit, I’ve never really thought about empathy before. I think before I just viewed it as feeling sorry for someone. But Nafisi’s description of it was really pretty interesting. I especially thought it was interesting when she said that, “Without this empathy there can be no genuine dialogue, and we as individuals and nations will remain isolated and alien, segregated and fragmented.” I guess this implies that we all empathize...
Words: 397 - Pages: 2
...“Empathy needs no genius” (Beta, 2000-2016). In Leslie Jamison’s The Empathy Exams she makes the point of you being a good doctor does not just have to do with knowing all the medical situations, but also being able to empathize with patients. Showing empathy to a patient can help the doctor-patient or nurse-patient interaction because it will make the patient feel more like a human being. Jamison says empathy suggests “… you enter another person’s pain as you’d enter another country, through immigration and customs, border crossing by way of query: What grows where you are? What are the laws? What animals graze there?” (Jamison, 2014). The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison emphasizes how important empathy is important in healthcare workers and patient...
Words: 680 - Pages: 3
...Empathy is how a person feels and expresses their feelings about something. There are several displays of empathy throughout the book To Kill A Mockingbird that show the reader true insight into what the characters feel. Several articles in the StudySync series do a great job of showing the reader examples of empathy by giving the reader insight on people’s lives who were discriminated against or couldn’t use their voice. However, To Kill A Mockingbird does a better job of displaying empathy for those that cannot speak up for themselves by using characters like Mayella Ewell and Boo Radley as examples for Scout to express her empathy. They allow her to show empathy because they are people that she interacts with and she understands that with all of the trouble in their lives, they are not able to use their voice and speak for themselves when they need to. This is how the book connects to a reader on a deeper level than the poem “Lift Every Voice and Sing” by James Weldon Johnson. Both To Kill A Mockingbird and Studysync focus on empathy. Harper Lee, the author of To Kill A Mockingbird, develops Scouts empathy by making her understand other people’s lives and their troubles, which makes her more sympathetic towards...
Words: 810 - Pages: 4
...websites, other students’ papers, or any other sources in my essay.” An Inadequate Existence of Empathy Growing up, most individuals are taught to be sympathetic towards others during their times of despair. Sending “Feel Better!” cards to someone in the hospital or flowers to someone who’s loved one has passed are examples of how society attempts to visibly show others they feel bad for one another, or that they sympathize with them. Beyond the realm of visibility and tangibility there is empathy, said to be one of the most important “skills” humans can possess. Empathy involves an individual recalling their own personal feelings of a situation they have been through and making them relevant to that of another individual’s situation- it, unlike sympathy, requires first and foremost an understanding of the emotions of someone else while vicariously feeling these same emotions in concordance with that individual. For example, children look to their parents when they come upon various trials and tribulations, and parent(s), with far greater life experiences, are expected to have an understanding of their child’s feelings- they are expected to possess the ability to empathize. In his short story, “Barn Burner,” William Faulkner emphasizes the importance of the presence of empathy in individuals by creating Abner Snopes, a man that spends his life making a conscious refusal to feel empathy towards society, and more specifically toward his youngest son, Sarty. Through the continuous...
Words: 952 - Pages: 4
...hasn't spoken a word.I believe that seventh graders should read Out Of My Mind because it teaches them several lessons about to feel empathy for others,to be kind and be grateful for what you have. I believe that 7th grader should read Out Of My Mind because it demonstrates several examples of empathy for others. Empathy is very important,especially for middle schoolers.Feeling empathy is when someone puts there self in your position. For example teachers and parents always put their self in your position , like if you are having a problem in a subject. Empathy is mostly happens in Out Of My Mind when melody's mom defends her against Mr.Dimming.What happens is that The Wiz Kids were suppose to have a flight and melody wasn't there.The Wiz Kids left earlier on purpose to leave melody . Mr.Dimmings insults melody and says that Melody was the smartest kid on the team.He said the key word was “was”. Melody's mom yells at him and hangs up. Melody's mom put herself in melody's position. When I read Out Of My Mind I saw many examples of empathy towards melody. Another reason where this book shows empathy is when melody puts herself in her moms and dads position. Mom accidently runs over penny.It is some what both of the...
Words: 787 - Pages: 4
...Running Head: EMPATHY AND SOCIAL LEARNING Developing Empathy: Nurturing Through Social Learning Abstract This paper explores the Social Learning Theory and how prosocial behavior, specifically empathy, is cultured through observation, modeling and imitation. Empathy is defined through a review of Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiment, Jeremy Sloan’s article on developing empathy and the impact it has on animals in our world, and an assessment of empathy in future criminal justice professionals. All provide evidence and data to support the finding that adults have lasting influence on children and how ones behavior is formed. Empathy is a vital trait and it’s a primary requisite for successfully managing daily experiences. Key words: Empathy, Modeling, Social Learning, and Development Introduction The development of empathy allows us the innate ability to relate to another’s experiences, motives and feelings. It is the foundation of compassion and caring, and is monumental in many of life’s challenges and successes. It is what allows us to learn from others and become responsible, caring adults. Many significant professions require empathy: medical care, fire rescue, education, criminal justice, and most importantly parenting. Tragic events such as slavery and the Holocaust illuminate the significance of empathy, it’s part in humankind’s wellbeing, and how requisite it is to encourage healthy development of the trait (Sajo, 2011). It is therefore of utmost...
Words: 2089 - Pages: 9
..."There are a broad range of counselling micro skills that can be utilized effectively in therapy sessions. Within the context of their personal history, effective micro skill applications can encourage clients to tell their stories in colourful and extensive detail. Such effective implementation of micro skills facilitates the development of rapport and a positive therapeutic alliance thereby permitting clients to enrich their perspectives regarding problem and opportunity situations in their lives (Egan, 2007). Three important counseling techniques will be explored, all of which have been clinically demonstrated to be efficacious in a broad range of counseling settings (Egan). The skills of active listening, empathy and sharing empathic highlights will be discussed and analysed within the framework of a counselling case study. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to examine the use, efficacy and deficiencies of how these skills were employed within a counselling session with a mother, let's call her Mary. Mary presented to counselling with a five year history of frustrated attempts to get her daughter to sleep consistently in her own bed. On one hand, she had gone to extraordinary efforts to influence and sustain effective sleep patterns in her daughter. On the other, a feeling of being out of control permeated drained resourcefulness. Mary felt she was too compliant with her daughter's unwilling behaviour and sought help from a counsellor. The surface structure of...
Words: 1998 - Pages: 8
...Troops Leave Widows Jobless”. The article takes a bit of a different view on things. It details the events where soldiers from the United States enter Afghan poppy fields and destroy them which, of course, leaves the owners of the poppy fields void of income. In many cases, widows cannot get another job and they fail to gather enough money to feed the children; the result is starvation. As I was reading the article, I found that I empathised with the widow to the point where I knew that if I were that soldier, I would not be able to destroy those poppy fields. However, would my empathy-borne actions eventually be beneficial? Would they truly be ethical? In 2005, 70% of the acute drug deaths were thanks to opioids. Meanwhile, opium production is still increasing in Afghanistan, up to a 6,400 ton increase in 20014. Thus from this dilemma, I formed the knowledge question, “To what extent can we rely on empathy to make ethical decisions?”. This knowledge question highlights how one should make morally-correct choices in any situation, whether it be at war or debating whether we should donate $5 to the homeless man or not. I will investigate this knowledge question through two areas of knowledge, Ethics, the study of morals, and Human Sciences. Each AOK will be explored through various experts and their WOK. I will conclude my presentation with my own answer to the knowledge question, personal thoughts and what my answer...
Words: 1902 - Pages: 8
...emotion, empathy. Empathy plays the biggest role in the book through the global religion known in the novel as Mercerism. The practice of Mercerism centers on a piece of technology known as the empathy box. Users of the empathy box will take this technology by it handles which in turn infuses them into a type of physiological virtual experience. One of the experiences showcases the struggles of a mysterious man named Mercer and his journey up a mountain. Mercer’s journey up the mountain is met with hardship as unidentified bystanders would toss rocks at him as he attempts to ascend to his destination. Mercer would repeatedly fall to the bottom of the mountain but resume to the repeat process of reaching the top. Characters in the book also experience acts of enlightenment with Mercer where they are taught or told something by him that builds their character in the real world. Towards the end of the story, character Rick Deckard seems to have reached a point of enlightenment when he was able to experience the fusion with mercer in the real world without the use of the empathy box. It was then when Rick realized that Mercerism wasn’t just a false religion meant to mind trick people into becoming subordinates. The interesting thing about the empathy box is that not only are you watching this tragedy of Mercer unfold in front of you; everything that happens in this virtual world to the users becomes a reality in the real world. For example, when John Isidore connects to the empathy box...
Words: 1008 - Pages: 5
