Introduction+Draft+2

Empathy and Objectivity Justice is supposed to be blind and law is supposed to be above emotion. They are made to give the right decision. However, they often fail in giving the objective decision due to empathy. __A Time to Kill__ by John Grisham is one of the examples that shows an empathy can manipulate someone. It is about Jake Tyler Brigance, a white lawyer who has empathy with colored-man. He tries to help Carl Lee Hailey, who had killed two men that had raped his daughter. Jake fought for justice, but empathy is not enough to have “a real justice”. In this case, Jake’s empathy educates a lot of people not to be racist. On the other hand, it manipulates other people to feel guilty, because they were racists. Then, it would empower them to forget the law. His empathy bend him to break the rule, he positions his emotion above the law. By watching Jake closely, we can know that empathy is not always right. People who have over empathy can lose their objectivity, because it encourages them to give priority to their emotion. In the theory, people should control their emotion, and should not let their emotion control their life. If people’s emotion leads their life, it will impact negatively on them and they will lose their objectivity. In a society, objectivity is more important than empathy, because it impacts a lot of people, whereas empathy just focuses in personal life.Therefore, people should also keep their objectivity. If all people prioritise their emotion, consiquently is abiding the law and the world will be full of havoc. Both Jake and Atticus play as the lawyer in the movie and the novel respectively. Atticus Finch is a major character from __To Kill a Mockingbird__ by Harper Lee. These two characters have several similarities. They have the feeling of empathy toward colored-man. They defend a colored man with all of their effort. :”I’m simply defending a Negro-his name’s Tom Robinson. He lives in that little settlement beyond the town dump. He’s a member of Calipurna’s church, and Cal knows his family well. She says they’re clean-living folks. ....” (Lee, 100). This quote proves that Atticus has a feeling of empathy to every people without looking at their social class, occupation, family background, and so on. Eventhough there are a lot of people against him, he still wants to fight for the people who needed his help. This is also an evidence that verifies Atticus as a person who is not a racial bigot. He has the courage to become a positive role model who will stand up for anyone even if they had been exposed as a person with a lower social class. Analogous to Atticus, Jake has the same mind-set and took the same actions to help the defendant. : ”The main one is, if I didn’t I couldn’t hold up my head in town, I couldn’t represent this county in the legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again.” (Lee, 100). That quote shows that Atticus, as a lawyer, is a responsible man. He knows that Tom Robinson is blameless, so he tries his best to carry out his duty to defend him. Altough he has to go through many obstacles, he decides to stand up for a justice. In this situation, both of them are very much alike. Even though Jake gets countless trouble, he still tries to obtain fairness for his defendant. Jake and Atticus also have the same basic problem that came up when they were in process of trial. :“To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. This case is as simple as black and white.” (Lee, 271). : ”... I am confident that you gentlemen will review with passion the evidence you have heard, come to a decision, and restore this defendant to his family...” (Lee, 275). As well as Jake, Atticus meet up with the same mentality of people who opposed to him. All of them were racist. Atticus realise that people’s racism lead people’s temprament, as a consequence the case is getting misserable. Atticus uses the feeling of empathy in his testimony to desmonstrate other people not to be racist. He plead for people to put themselves in other’s people condition, so that other people and jury can judge the case wisely. On the other hand, the two lawyers’ trails that they had to face are a factor that distincts them. Jake should be confronted by murder case, but Atticus encounters with guiltless case. “... It has relied instead upon the testimony of two witnesses whose evidence has not only been called into serious question on cross-examination, but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant. The defendant is not guilty, but somebody in this courtroom is.” (Lee, 271). The quote shows obviously that Tom Robinson is absolutely innocent. All of people just try to blame him. There will be not two different depositions, if there people who take an attempt to find him guilty. Contrarily with Jake, he should argue for a case that is definetely wrong-doing. Nevertheless, the jury’s decision about the trial also is incompatible Jake with Atticus. “Tom Robinson’s a colored man, Jem. No jury in this part of the world’s going to say, ‘We think you’re not guilty, but not very,’ on a charge like that. ....” (Lee, 294). Jake and Atticus live in the different era, and every different era has different conception. In Atticus’s epoch, people do not be obliged for a diversity of social background. They discriminate people based on people’s social level. So when there is a problem which connect with Tom Robinson, colored-man, they would prejudice and indict against him undoubtedly. Jake’s epoch is contrary with Atticus’, discrimantion in his era is almost fade away. As a result, other people can realize their oversight easier. In conclusion, we can see that empathy is important in our life. By having an empathy, we can create a peaceful world, people will help each other without any prejudice and there will be no feeling of hatred. In spite of empathy, we should know that objectivity is more important, because in some circumstances, empathy can mislead people’s morality. If all people let their empathy lead their ways, their emotion will beat upon their objectivity. Then, the majority of the law will be violated and the world will get worse. On that occasion, the society will be in riot because whenever people put their emotion in their prime concern, they will neglect the regulation. Therefore, based on the discussions written above, we cannot live only by the feeling of empathy but we also need to be open-minded to understand and resolve problems in the reality.