In chapter 19, Dill started to cry when Mr. Gilmer was harshly and rudely accusing Tom Robinson because Dill felt what he was going through. Mr. Gilmer was questioning Tom Robinson with cruelty. He was throwing harsh and unfair questions at him. I believe Dill started to cry because he understood what Tom Robinson was feeling. Dill has been neglected and treated like he was lower than the rest of his family. So when Dill heard how offensively Tom was being treated, he couldn’t help but let his emotions burst out of him.
"That old Mr. Gilmer doin' him thataway, talking so hateful to him...It was the way he said it made me sick, plain sick" This quote shows Dill's strong understanding of how Mr. Gilmer was talking to Tom as if he was lower than him. It shows Dill's strong sympathy toward Tom and how much Dill can't stand to see it.
When Scout took Dill outside, they talking with Mr. Dolphus Raymond. Mr. Raymond was white and married a black woman. He had a different way of living and so that people could understand his unique style, he let the people believe that the coke a cola he was drinking was alcohol. He let them believe that he couldn’t help the way he lived because he was always half drunk. I think Dill can also connect to this character. Mr. Raymond never really fit in with anybody, just like Dill who was tossed around from relative to relative. Dill never assimilated with or felt at home with anybody. While they were talking, I, as a reader, could sense that they both understood each other and had a strong connection.
Overall, I think Dill began to cry because he understood what Tom Robinson was going through. Dill also understood Mr. Raymond and his different ways of life.
As Mr. Gilmer harshly cross-examined Tom Robinson, Dill began to cry in the most important example of empathy we have seen so far in the novel. First off, I completely agree with Natasha in that Dill understood Tom Robinson when he was up on the stand, so he let his emotions out without control. This sudden release of emotion draws the reader in and allows us to experience the feeling that Dill is trying to convey. “...I don’t care one speck. It ain’t right, somehow it ain’t right to do ‘em that way. Hasn’t anybody got any business talkin’ like that- it just makes me sick.” This quote supports the idea of empathy that Dill feels for Tom Robinson. Natasha correctly identified that the reason Dill not only empathizes with but understands Tom Robinson is because he is treated the same way, in a sense. From the beginning of the book, Dill has come up in rare instances and we hear his stories about being tossed around from relative to relative because nobody cares about him enough to take him for good. This feeling is similar to Tom Robinson’s, in that he also is tossed around from location to location, and the cultural ethic in the South, in Maycomb, gives him a sense of inferiority to everyone else simply because of his skin color. I feel that Harper Lee chose to have Dill cry for one reason: to show the reader that not everyone in this place at this time felt the same way about important issues; in this case, racial inferiority. Dill’s scattered emotions throughout the book always seem to channel down into one main idea: there is always someone there that understands the situation at hand. Either it be two people across from you at the dinner table, a person across the street, or even someone that you don’t know exists. There is always someone that can fully understand the emotion another person is going through, and this chapter is a confirmation that Dill can adapt to any situation to deeply understand another character’s feelings, which is why he plays a pivotal role in the development of the theme of empathy in To Kill a Mockingbird.
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Tynan
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