To Kill A Mockingbird Empathy Character Analysis

According to psychoanalyst Heinz Kohut, “Empathy is the capacity to think and feel oneself into the inner life of another person”. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the Finch family, consisting of Scout, Jem, and their father Atticus, are unlike most families in the prejudice and racist town of Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. Different from other families in their small town, the Finch children are taught to tolerate other people’s differences through empathy, and to not judge people based on what they see on the outside, rather than on the inside. Throughout the novel, young Scout attempts to be empathetic with many people she comes across, but most importantly her school friend’s countryfolk father, a naive white trash young woman, and a mysterious, reserved man. In the middle of the novel, Scout attempts to empathize for one of the first times with countryman Mr. Cunningham, and succeeds, making him change his mind when he thought of what the effects his actions could be. When Scout, her brother Jem, and …show more content…
When Scout stood on the Radley porch observing Maycomb, she saw “...[Arthur’s] children shivering at the front gate… he [was] watching his children’s heart break… Autumn again, and [his] children needed him” (Lee 374). While standing on Arthur Radley’s porch, Scout notices that he could see everything in the town from there, even though he had been “locked” inside his house for the past fifteen years. He watched over everyone, but especially Scout and Jem, which is why he often left gifts in the tree on the edge of his yard for them to pick up. Scout also realizes that he maybe was not as lonely as everyone thought because he was able to watch and be entertained by the whole town just outside, while in the comfort of his own