Compassion in The Witch of Blackbird Pond Essay

Compassion is important in every walk of life. The definition of compassion is : a virtue of empathy for the suffering of others and a desire to alleviate that suffering. Compassion is important because it makes up who you are and is a strong part of human love. Without compassion, no human could ever get close to each other or function together as a society. Without compassion, people would not be able work together because they would not care about anyone else’s pain. There would be no working together towards a common goal, that is one of the key pillars of society. Compassion is reason we have doctors and nurses. Compassion is reason that when we see someone hurt, on the ground, we help them up. In the novel, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Kit and Nat show compassion for Hannah Tupper when her house burns down. She is their friend and they are sympathetic for her and do anything to help her. They even go into the building to retrieve her cats. They are feeling compassion for her and will help to alleviate her suffering, risking the possible legal repercussions of aiding a witch. Another instance in the novel in which the characters show compassion is when Kit teaches Prudence to read and when she defends Prudence from her mother by lying at the trial. The first time was compassion because kit saw prudence had low self worth because her mother has lead her to believe that she is stupid and never will be able to read. Kit sees her suffering and decides to alleviate her suffering, risking Goodwife Cruff’s wrath by teaching her to read and write. Later in the book, once kit is accused of practicing witch craft and the townspeople present the evidence of the hornbook with Prudence’s name written in it repeatedly, Kit lies for Prudence’s sake. She doesn’t want Prudence to get beaten by her mother. She risks possible death in compassion for Prudence’s situation. Finally, prudence shows compassion to Kit. Against all odds, though she has been educated to not show compassion by watching her mother, she shows everyone that she can write. She risks her mother’s abuse to save Kit, a girl she has recently met, but who has taught her a very important value: compassion.