Edited by: Kyra Bredenhof
Have you ever read a book so good it sticks with you for days, months, or even years afterwards? Have you ever felt so understood by a character, you wished that they were real?
Allow me to ask you a further question: why care so much about fictional characters?
Great stories make us emotionally invest in experiences that aren’t even our own. We transport into an adventure we may never encounter otherwise. Reading gives us the rare opportunity to live several lives and experience a story from a fresh perspective. This fosters key skills for developing the emotional intelligence and empathy we need to understand one another, after the book ends.
Throughout my life as a reader, I have been on many adventures. I have navigated love in the 19th century, I have fought for my life in a deadly arena, I have even been a mystical faerie in a magical world.
As a twenty-year-old university student, these unique expeditions would be impossible to experience without books; whilst reading, you absorb every thought, feeling and emotion the character does. These characters may harbour different identities or exist within completely fantastical worlds, but this does not limit the genuine compassion readers feel.
Of course, reading words on a page does not equate to fully experiencing the pain some of these stories describe, but it provides a shift in perspective and offers important life lessons.
Last April I finished the latest instalment in the Hunger Games series: Sunrise on The Reaping. The state I was in upon finishing was concerning, to say the least. Without any spoilers, I think it goes without saying that the protagonist Haymitch suffers… a lot by the end of the book, leaving me a blubbering mess.
I never had to participate in the 50th Hunger Games, but that wasn’t necessary to deeply feel and understand his sorrow. I was there every step of the way, reading his every thought. When he succeeded in something, I celebrated; when he suffered, I felt devastated. No matter how fictional his dystopian world may be, my emotions were real.
When reading, I constantly analyse each action: why did he do that? What would I do in this situation? What circumstances influenced this decision? Unknowingly, this exercises thought patterns crucial for handling various situations in real life.
Reading does not magically inject every reader with emotional intelligence. What it does do is strengthen that empathetic bone that every one of us possess. This habit of considering new perspectives and genuinely caring for characters and their stories carries over into everyday life.
A skill we learn as young children is making connections while reading, meaning we see friends, family or even ourselves within these characters. Characters resembling loved ones help us to better understand their actions, this garners patience and an open mind. Reading also teaches that two people can go through the same situation but handle it completely differently. You may even be able understand your own emotions through the characters you resonate with, which is a truly beautiful thing.
Have you ever read something and thought, Wow, that articulates exactly how I have been feeling lately? Or realized, I have been in a similar emotional situation in my own life. You don’t need to slay any dragons to be able to empathize and understand these characters and their hardships.
So, to answer my question: why care so much about fictional characters? The answer to that lies in the fact that reading teaches us to care for people and who they truly are. At its simplest form, these stories are reflections of the human experience and what it means to live and feel and love and hate.
Literature helps us understand mistakes, complex emotions, and people. Though the characters themselves may be fictional, the empathy we experience because of them is real. So, next time a book makes you feel something, you are doing more than escaping reality. Maybe you are moulding your understanding of this real and crazy world we all exist in and the cast of characters within it.