Empathy

Have you ever read a book where the author's writing made you feel exactly how the character feels? If the character was sad, you felt his/her sadness. If the character was overjoyed, you felt overjoyed as well. If the character was jealous, you felt his/her jealousy. If the character felt that it wasn't fair, you felt it wasn't fair either. That is called empathy. Writers try to make you feel empathy because otherwise, it would be less interesting to read. Books wouldn't be as good without being able to understand what the characters felt.

For school, we had to read a book called The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis. She was great at making us feel empathy because she's been to Afghanistan before (The Breadwinner is a book about a young girl's life in Afghanistan). She was really good at making us feel sad, happy, angry, etc. One example is when the main character's father gets arrested by the Taliban. The Taliban just barged into the house and took Parvana's father away. We felt that Parvana (the main character) was feeling sad, depressed and angry. The whole classroom was filled with a lot of "whats!" and "that's not fair!"

I read a book called The Lightning Thief just recently. One example of when I felt empathy was when the main character met his father (the Greek god Poseidon) for the first time and Poseidon didn't really care because he has many kids and this one wasn't even supposed to be alive. Percy (the main character) was so excited to meet him, and Poseidon just said: "You did a fine job on your quest but you must go, child. But first know that your mother has returned." No "Nice to meet you son" or "I'm very proud to have you as a son". Percy was hurt because he thought it would be a big thing to meet his father for the first time and he was looking forward to the day he would finally meet him. I understood how he felt because the words the writer used for the dialogue were very well written and described.

To make you feel empathy, authors usually use strong adjectives and descriptive words. So next time you read a book, think about how the character feels and what you would do about it if you were in his/her place and how well the author describes how he/she feels. If you ever write a story, think about how you can write to make people feel empathy.

By the way, I strongly recommend you read The Breadwinner and its sequels.