Publication Date

Spring 4-18-2024

School

College of Arts and Sciences

Major

English

Keywords

secondary character, first-person narrator, Moby Dick, The Great Gatsby, sympathy, empathy

Disciplines

Literature in English, North America

Abstract

One of the greatest functions of literature is its ability to make readers attuned to the emotions of others. Specifically, literature promotes the practices of both empathy and sympathy. Point of view has a strong effect on how emotion is directed, and the secondary character as the first-person narrator functions as a literary device to direct the reader’s sympathy toward an unlikable, fatally-flawed protagonist. Secondary characters draw the reader close to the emotional world of the narrative through an others-orientation, their status as survivor, and their relationship to the protagonist. Ishmael in Moby Dick and Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby both illustrate how this narrative style facilitates empathy for the narrator and sympathy for the protagonist.

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