I think Dill cries because he has empathy for Tom Robinson, who was being put up on the spot like that. Tom was afraid of having to go to court, and thats why he ran, yet he was still pulled in because of prejudice. On page 266 Dill says"I know all that, Scout. It was the way he said it made me plain sick." When Atticus says that they have a police of children, he means that the empathy they can show can stop people doing unjust things. Dill clearly showed empathy for Tom Robinson. I think that the reason Scout and Jem were not showing as much empathy as Dill is because of a part of their upbringing. The way that they have been brought up kept them from being able to put themselves in his shoes. I think that prejudice also plays a major part.
Do you think prejudice has to do with the output of empathy in the court?
I think that Dill can also relate to this feeling of disrespect and alienation that African-Americans get in this time, given his experiences with his family. He's got a mother, it seems, but she remarries and his new father "just wasn't interested in [him]" (190). He says that they do the bare minimum of parenting, getting him things, but they don't pay any attention to him. This may cause him to feel like he doesn't really have a family, that he isn't really loved. He can probably relate to the biracial children mentioned earlier in the novel. They don't have one true race to wholly belong to, and Dill doesn't have a true family that he feels that he belongs in and is loved. Given this connection to them he feels, his empathy is sparked and he is reminded of what it's like to be somewhat disrespected when he sees Tom Robinson experiencing the same thing. During the section of Tom’s trial in which Dill starts crying, Mr. Gilmer is mouthing off to him and treating him with great disrespect and distrust. Tom is treated like an inferior human being, which is a bit like what Dill feels, except far more extreme. Dill feels this because he isn’t talked to by his family, and they don’t care too much about him, suggesting they see him as inferior.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I think that Dill feels empathy for Tom Robinson because he is young. It also seems like he is not racist like many of the other adults in the town. I also think he can feel empathy for him because of the situation with his parents. Dill knows what its like for people to not care what he feels, so he easily feels empathy for Tom Robinson, who is being treated the same way.
ReplyDelete