The Empathy Question
This type of question could start as follows:
 Imagine you are…
 You are…
 Suppose that…
A favourite task in the exam is to get a character to look back on his/her feelings after important events have taken place. It may involve a part or the whole of your text.
Success Criteria [the ingredients for a high level empathy response]
Remember to:
1.
Write in the first person - use ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘my’.
2.
Put yourself in the shoes of the named character at the point where s/he is looking back at events.
3.
Select the key parts of the action, those that would be ‘on the mind’ of your character. Don’t allow yourself to lapse into a flat, uninteresting re-telling of the story.
4.
Explain the events that led up to the conclusion of your story but describe your thoughts and feelings about those events.
5.
Explore and explain your relationships with other characters.
6.
Explain the reasons for your behaviour throughout the text
7.
Make the ‘voice’ of your character convincing by adopting their way
of speaking and possibly dialect and distinctive words they use.
8.
Echo the words of the text in your writing. In an empathy response you do not need to use quotation marks unless you are quoting another character or quoting yourself from another occasion.

Examples of Empathy Writing:
GEORGE -
Without Lennie I would suffer intense bouts of loneliness and depression. It is true that his lack of intelligence can be intensely irritating at times but this is far outweighed by the
benefits I receive from his company. X
This is how George feels but it is not how he would have said
it. In the novel the grammar and vocabulary are an important part of their characterization.
This is a truer version of what George would say:
I do get fed up with Lennie but I wouldn’t be without him.
He forgets everything I say, all he can ever think about is them damn rabbits and living off the fatta the lan’. He sure is as crazy as a wedge. 

Empathy Writing - part of a modelled answer on Curley’s wife. first person
Curley’s wife they call me. Huh! Curley’s wife! I ain’t no wife to thoughts and feelings relationships
Curley and he ain’t no husband to me. No-one ever calls me by my real
theme of loneliness name. Infact, no-one on this ranch even wants to talk to me. I know what echoing the text they say about me behind my back - jailbait, tart. What do they know? I theme of dreams could have been in the movies.
As for Curley, two weeks we’ve been married and where does he relationships go? To the whore house. He thinks I don’t know but I do. I ain’t that dumb. An’ I know what happened to his han’, the big guy bust it and I’m thoughts and feelings really glad. echoing the text
I’m left all alone on a Sat’day night with a bunch of bindle stiffs.
theme of racism
They were all in the nigger’s room talking about owning land. They’re crazy, all of them. The big one - Lennie’s his name - all he did was talk about rabbits. Anyway, as soon as I walk in they all go quiet and not one theme of loneliness of ‘em wants to talk to me. That Crooks is getting above himself but I echoing the text told him what I could do if he didn’t shut up. That soon stopped him.

Writing task:
Imagine you are Curley. At the end of the story you look back over the main events. Write your thoughts and feelings about what has happened. Remember how Curley would speak when you write your answer.
[Page references: 46-50; 51-52; 59-60; 80-81; 90-94; 133-4;
149]
Before you begin.
 Identify the key parts of the action that Curley would write about.
 Identify the key emotions that Curley would be feeling.