Compare How Each Writer Makes You Feel Sympathy for the Main Characters in Each Text: ‘Out, Out –’ by Robert Frost and the Last Night by Sebastian Faulks
Both of the writers make me feel sympathy for the main characters because the main characters are both still in their youth and they both face the same fate – death. Although the characters are portrayed in very different situations, both writers show how powerless they are to avert their fate.
By having an accident or tragedy in the pieces, the writers make the reader feel compassion because it is not the central characters fault. From saying that the boy was ‘a child at heart’ whilst ‘doing a man’s work’, Frost tells us directly how young the boy is and how he is not experienced enough to understand how important his hands are. He uses repetition of the word ‘child’ to emphasise how still is. In contrast, André and Jacob in The Last Night are only children; they are orphans and they only have each other to rely on. Faulks makes us feel even more sorry for the Jewish children because even a ‘baby of a few weeks is being lifted’ onto the bus to go to the concentration camp.
The writers make the reader feel sympathy for the main characters by making their background circumstances pitiable; although they are both young, their lives are very hard. The boy in the poem is only a teenager, but he is already working. In the poem, he is on his own working by himself and has to work for a very long day. Frost uses repetition of ‘snarled and rattled’ to emphasise how boring the boy’s job is. He has to concentrate and cannot enjoy the scenery; he is not one of those that had the time to lift their eyes to ‘count the five mountain ranges one behind the other under the sunset far into Vermont.’ In contrast, the living conditions in the Last Night are very poor; the squalid conditions of the Jews that are waiting to be taken to the concentration camp makes the readers feel pity for them. While the children are waiting, they are only given a sandwich and a pail of water to share between them; they have to drink water out of sardine cans. The sleeping conditions are also very
By having an accident or tragedy in the pieces, the writers make the reader feel compassion because it is not the central characters fault. From saying that the boy was ‘a child at heart’ whilst ‘doing a man’s work’, Frost tells us directly how young the boy is and how he is not experienced enough to understand how important his hands are. He uses repetition of the word ‘child’ to emphasise how still is. In contrast, André and Jacob in The Last Night are only children; they are orphans and they only have each other to rely on. Faulks makes us feel even more sorry for the Jewish children because even a ‘baby of a few weeks is being lifted’ onto the bus to go to the concentration camp.
The writers make the reader feel sympathy for the main characters by making their background circumstances pitiable; although they are both young, their lives are very hard. The boy in the poem is only a teenager, but he is already working. In the poem, he is on his own working by himself and has to work for a very long day. Frost uses repetition of ‘snarled and rattled’ to emphasise how boring the boy’s job is. He has to concentrate and cannot enjoy the scenery; he is not one of those that had the time to lift their eyes to ‘count the five mountain ranges one behind the other under the sunset far into Vermont.’ In contrast, the living conditions in the Last Night are very poor; the squalid conditions of the Jews that are waiting to be taken to the concentration camp makes the readers feel pity for them. While the children are waiting, they are only given a sandwich and a pail of water to share between them; they have to drink water out of sardine cans. The sleeping conditions are also very