Empathy is a particular sort of imagination which lets you put yourself in someone else’s shoes. According to Cleeve, it is necessary to create realistic characters to “spring alive” or redeem the plot of the story instead of having characters who act like cardboards cut-out mouthpieces for the author. He also adds that for a character to “spring alive” it will depend on sympathy or instead empathy –a subordination of self to acquire another personality. According to Cleeve, the writer must be able to act that character in his mind (Dickson, Fredette & Smythe, 1991). Perceiving this character in a vacuum, listen to it and be the character even for the reader. In the character creation stage, the writer must be able to ask themselves what they would do if they were in their shoes, by acting the character’s role in their minds.
For one to connect the character to the audience there is need to create realistic elements and attributes of the character that the audience identifies with. For instance, you want to project a role, for example as frustrated and worn out, while at the same time you want the audience to empathize with him. While this may be hard, one can relate with their real-life engagements such as with friends, families and pass on the same to the book in writing and character development. Just as we tend to understand our friends because of the degree of engagement we have with them, the same should be passed on to the audience by ensuring that they know the characters as much as they can to the extent that they grow feelings of empathy towards them (Komeda et al., 2013).
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According to the Handbook, the bookkeeper in the story sprung alive for me as the chief character. The bookkeeper’s ambition of being a violinist is cut short due to the frustrations he gets from his job. When the girl with cheap perfume passed by him, looking at him with a presumption that she quickly writes him off. The other instance is the Miller (The value of the wart), who stands out as the only one with a blemish that has hair on it and is as red as the bristles in a sow’s ear. These instances ignite a sense of empathy to the reader, common challenges we encounter in life, almost on a daily basis.
Character Sketch
Charles Smith, a 36-year-old man with a receding hairline, lives in a small village of Rhinebeck. Being a wealthy merchant and a proficient banker, Charles became quite popular in the vast Rhinebeck village. He cut a figure of a beefy man without clear neckline; his loud voice marries with quite a stare and a metallic smile that is hard to ignore. Out of his brassy trumpet voice came arrogance in every word and a bully of humility, Charles was a dominant figure.
Charles is a straightforward man who only values his mother who is an old traditionalist, his family ranch and his “coolness quotient” as he calls it. Albeit, being sufficiently wealthy, he seems to have a thirst for single mothers and even joins a club for single parents. His bottomless pocket of money boosts his unending appetite for ladies; Mr. ‘Moneybag’ as they call him is irresistible. With his servants at his beck and call, he pays little attention to his three children who he retained custody of after divorcing his three ex-wives.
On a particular day, Jean, his four-year-old daughter was cooking hotdogs in their grass-thatched tree when she accidentally set herself on fire; she was rushed to the hospital by the servants on duty. Upon arriving at the hospital to check on his daughter, his eyes flaming red as he flexed his muscles facing his servants with rage. Charle’s intended to take his daughter to a traditionalist who cured his brother’s snake bite; despite his modern lifestyle, Charles was a superstitious individual. The hospital attendants, however, manage to throw him out after hours of fistfights; Charles is not a pushover, he fights for what he believes. Weeks later, he sneaks into the hospital and abducts her daughter slothfully without anyone noticing. His car was parked at the corner, the engine idling with Lori and Judy, his other children sited at the back seat, Jean slid across the seat as Charles took the wheel. It was an escape well planned.
References
Dickson, F. A., Fredette, J. M., & Smythe, S. (Eds.). (1991). Handbook of short story writing (Vol. 2). Writer's Digest Books.
Komeda, H., Tsunemi, K., Inohara, K., Kusumi, T., & Rapp, D. N. (2013). Beyond disposition: the processing consequences of explicit and implicit invocations of empathy. Acta Psychologica, 142(3), 349-355.
