Mr. Tipton
Sam Hu
May 9th, 2018
How does Lee create sympathy for Dill?
The character, Dill, has been implicitly presented sympathetically through many different aspects. Through comparison to his physical and mental traits with his personality, Lee made Dill sympathetic. The theme passiveness was presented from a series of events with Dill, eventually created sympathy for him. The pitying attitudes of the Macomb neighborhood towards Dill as a small and weak figure made him sympathetic. …show more content…
Dill, sat in the collard patch and claimed: “I can read.” He then suggested that he is willing to help Jem and Scout read. Moving on, when Dill was asked about his father, he “blushed.” Dill “sat” instead of standing up or walking toward Jem and Scout. His body language indicates that he presented himself in a higher position; Then Dill, as someone high above, is bending down to help those who are not as talented. No doubt Dill is quite proud of the fact that he was literate. This is Dill deliberately trying to convince Jem and Scout that he’s superior. From Scout and Dill’s conversation, we were told that Dill “haven’t got a dad”, and he “isn’t dead” either. Most likely, the truth is that Dill’s parents divorced. When it comes to his sore point —his family situation— his pride was gone. Behind the mask, Dill was only a pitiful child who was supposed to gain support from other yet it was the opposite of what he did. At this point of the book, Lee has illustrated Dill quite comprehensively: a little boy that is weak physically and mentally came from a broken family and is eager to show confidence and pride in front of others. The strong contradictory in between Dill’s characteristics and family background was a method used by Harper Lee in order to create sympathy for …show more content…
Although this might be an action out of loving, having constantly being underestimated is probably an unpleasant experience. We were told that Dill shared the same age with Scout. In chapter 20, Dolphus Raymond presented a significantly different attitude towards the two. Raymond talked thoroughly with Scout about his life and the situation of society but simply summed Dill as a childish little kid who would only stop crying until “he gets a few years on him”. Dill was seen as a more immature child in compare to Scout, considering the fact that Alabama was a men-superior society that won’t even allow female jury. Being under graded while a female friend had the opposite, it would be quite embarrassing for Dill, although he is not jealous of Scout. Similarly, Raymond called Dill “son” but called Scout “Ma’am”. The distinct difference in terms of the names made it somewhat offensive and disapproving to Dill, where Scout at the same age was treated as a young adult while he was treated as a kid. This part of Dill’s life, again, is a strong contrast to his personality. While Dill has the fundamental desire of being approved, he was constantly facing disapprovals and coddling in Maycomb. To Dill, this was the reverse of what he expects from others, being not understood by others lets him down. Sympathy for dill was presented by Harper Lee through isolating his internal feelings with