Stavenik 1 Morgan Stavenik English 1100-05 Professor White Empathy What is the meaning of empathy?

When someone asks me what empathy is, the first thing I think it is a deep feeling. It is a deep feeling of connection and relation to someone elses life. Usually empathy is an understanding of a sad feeling or perhaps remorse. In the article about empathy, For Better Social Skills, Scientists Recommend a Little Chekhov, Pam Bellock states that reading good literary fiction increases ones empathy, ability to read anothers body language, and emotional intelligence. Many articles prove that empathy in good literature does in fact increase an individuals empathy. Fat by Raymond Carver, The Hills like White Elephants written by Ernest Hemingway, along with a painting by Edward Hopper all included strong correlations that draw empathy from its audience. In the short story Fat by Raymond Carver, empathy is displayed. The short story begins with a woman who works at a dinner with quite a few regulars, when on this particular day an unusual guest comes to the restaurant. This man is unusual in that he is very overweight. Immediately, I become sympathetic for this mans health just because he is described as fat from the get go. The waitress treats this costumer like she would any other while the other waitresses begin to make a mockery of him. One of the waitresses Margo says, Who is your fat friend?..he is really fat . The waitress ignores the ridicule from her coworkers for the sake of her customer. For anyone who has ever been ridiculed or bullied before, they can relate to the inner sadness and grief the overweight man has. The waitress that ignores her coworkers behavior seems to be doing the right thing as a bystander in this situation. The fat man eats all of the marvelous

Stavenik 2 bread along with the Caesar salad. After second servings of bread are served, he scoffs all of that down too. The waitress says she likes to see a man eat all of that he was served almost to excuse the mans behavior of eating and warrant it. He is served soup and drinks up all of the soup. The waitress, as she serves the man, doesnt seem particularly empathetic but rather just polite to her large customer. The man is served the rest of his meal of pork chops and baked potato and more bread and butter. She tells him to enjoy his dinner and treats him like she would anyone else. Other coworkers comment on the customer that the waitress has been serving. The customer also orders a large dessert after finishing the dinner. The word viciously continues around the restaurant through the waitresses about the fat costumer. Now the verbal and visual bullying has gone to another level and having an individual described so disgracefully is disheartening to read over. The waitresss empathy increases as she gets to know the fat man. The fat man keeps commenting to the waitress about how he hasnt always eaten like he did on that day. The waitress ponders how she would feel if she had a child herself that was fat like this young gentlemen. This continues into her personal life when her husband Rudy, who has made derogatory comments about the fat man, rolls over her in bed. Rudy and the woman were going to bed; as he rolls on top of the young women and she begins to feel fat. She feels so fat that she feels much bigger than the man himself. She continues to feel empathy for the fat man as she tells the story and describes how she feels fat herself. It turns out she is telling the story to her close friend Rita. When she describes how she feels fat compared to her husband, we know she feels empathetic for the fat man. She puts herself in his shoes and becomes like him for a brief moment towards the end. Although the woman was not fat herself and rather average, she feels empathetic and is able to feel for the fat man in, Fat. The way that she describes how she

Stavenik 3 would feel if she were fat or if she had a child makes us as the reader know that she understands the man. She simply felt for the mans life. Fat by Raymond Carver develops the waitress into an empathetic individual along with the reader, me who became more empathetic with reading Along with Raymond Carver, Earnest Hemingway creates literature that produces just the same affect. The Hills like White Elephants by Earnest Hemingway begins with a women and a man that are sitting in a bar sharing alcohol together. She begins to make references to the hills in the distance and how they look like white elephants but mainly just the color of them. The couple makes allusions to something that is going to change their relationship in its entirety. It seems like the relationship was going smoothly up until the couple hit the road block of the womens pregnancy. Thats the only thing that bothers us. Its the only thing thats made us unhappy, the couple remarks. The pair is referring to having a child together. The decision of whether to abort the child or keep it is looming. The women seems passive aggressive but selfless and wants what is best for the relationship. The man does not want this child and almost forces the women not to have it. The young lady says she does not have to have the child but as readers we know deep inside she really does want it. We feel empathetic for the couple and their difficult decision that they face. Most of all as readers we feel badly for the women because she is not really loved or respected by the man. If she was really loved then the man would be willing to keep the baby but it seems he is strictly opposed to the entire idea. The womens selfless remarks like Then Ill do it. Because I dont care about me, prove her feelings. She is longing for the man to feel empathetic and give in to her idea of a child regardless of whether she says she doesnt care about herself. The Hills like White Elephants, has characters that want a feeling of remorse and connectedness from one another. The conflict of a having a child or not

Stavenik 4 lets the reader feel for the characters too. Hemingways short story like other fiction increases ones empathy along with the evolving characters. Although, fiction is not the only place empathy can be found and Edward Hoopers art proves that. Edward Hoopers 1930s painting of a sailboat is pleasing to the eye. This painting is of a sailboat drifting across the bay in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The sailboat resides near Long Point light house. The painting represents more then what it looks like on the surface but rather the observer can feel empathetic for a variety of different reasons. This classic maritime image evokes empathy because it appears to be a lonesome boat in the harbor where it almost seems desolate except for the lighthouse in the background. We can feel for the loneliness as an observer. The ship appears to be blowing sideways and it could be a rather windy day for the sails to be risen. The scene looks lonely, scary, but yet elegant and beautiful along with relatable. Not only am I empathetic, but the painter Edward Hopper proves his empathy for the fact that he even painted it. He lets the viewer see the scene through his eyes. Edward Hooper is yet again another artist whom paintings that display empathy. In Pam Bullocks article, For Better Social Skills, Scientists Recommend a Little Chekhov, Bullock refers to a professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Toronto named Keith Oakley. Oakly describes Raymond Carver, Earnest Hemingway, and Edward Hoopers pieces that display empathy perfectly. Oakley says These people have done not one experiment but five, and they have found the same effects. The fact that these writers and artist display empathy in their articles shows that reading good literary fiction increases ones empathy, ability to read anothers body language and emotional intelligence. Keith Oakley describes that empathy is not just in one of these articles but multiple ones and they make the reader feel empathetic for each of them. So, with Pam Bullocks article and references to

Stavenik 5 professors that she makes throughout, along with my references to Carver, Hemingway, and Hopper that I have prepared, we prove that good fiction increases ones empathy.