Importance Of Empathy In Samuel Hunter's Play 'The Whale'

When describing working with killer whales, one of the former SeaWorld trainers uses personification to illustrate the bond human and whale shared and how it started to seem as if the whale had become like one of his children. By giving the animal the likeness of a human, the trainer was hoping that the viewer could relate the bond he shared with his animal to the bond a viewer might have between a parent and their child. The former SeaWorld trainer also successfully uses pathos in this scene. He appeals to the viewers emotions, especially to parents, by bringing in the special bond of a parent and child. The bond between a parent and their child is one of the strongest bonds one will experience in a lifetime and it is also one of the bonds that we have all experienced. Not everyone may have felt the bonds of friendship and love, but everyone is either a parent or a child. As a result, the viewer is able understand the feeling of the trainers, who have been around and worked with the killer whales for so long, that if feels as if the whales have become their children.

Despite the amount of traumatising murders Charlie comes across, he is determined to understand people that are different from himself, providing him with a sympathetic and compassionate personality. Charlie's efforts to understand the minds of others does not go to waste as he successfully learns in-depth details about Jack Lionel "I don't know who this man is, but he didn't kill anybody. I've done everything wrong. Mad Jack Lionel isn't a criminal. He's probably not even mad. He's just old and sad and poor and lonely" (Charlie Bucktin p234). Through the sympathetic side of Charlie, a softer and more vulnerable component has been added to the novel, expressing Charlie's curiosity towards understanding Jack. A transition between Charlie regarding someone as dangerous and cruel compared to a harmless and nostalgic man is clear throughout chapter seven of the novel as Charlie begins to develop a further and deeper understanding of Jack's personality traits and motives. Instinct is a powerful aspect of the novel as it begins to delve into the innocence of the mind of Charlie when he originally assumes the worst of Jack before having a moment of realisation where Jack is no longer the criminal but instead a lonely, old man. After evaluating the multiple aesthetic features that constructed this particular novel, the innocence, understanding and sympathetic components are highlighted and contributed to the description of Charlie as a typical

Charlie’s friendship with Jasper Jones, his parents, and witnessing the intolerance of Corrigan are the three biggest factors in Charlie's development from innocence to experience. Jasper Jones exposed him to fear and forced him to be brave and face his fears, the rampant intolerance in Corrigan, both racial and otherwise, exposed him to the injustices of the real world, and his relationship with his parents taught him to be diplomatic and control his

Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite in the documentary, Blackfish (2013), argues that captivity triggers aggression in killer whales. Cowperthwaite supports her argument by demonstrating shocking footage and emotional interviews to present a convincing case against keeping these animals in captivity and for human entertainment. The author’s purpose is to show the problems that are caused by captivity in order to aware the audience that keeping killer whales in captivity affects their behavior mentally and physically. The author writes in resentful tone to Sea World, the people who visited Sea World, and those who were present during the killer whale incident. Gabriela Cowperthwaite argues that keeping killer whales in captivity at SeaWorld affects their mentality due to how they are being treated. She makes this argument by applying pathos, ethos, and logos.

She employs an effective range of visual techniques to create compassion for the miserable creatures. Contrasting real footage of captive whale with bent fin; with wild whale’s perpendicular fin. It allows the audience to question the differences and makes us realise that SeaWorld is doing something severely wrong that causes physical damage. This makes the audiences feel outraged by its treatment as it is unfair, inhuman and cruel; furthermore, audiences are invited to feel compassion for the unfortunate creature because they could not defend themselves.

The character of Charlie (being the protagonist) is who the readers are directly linked too, as we are taken on a journey with him through his actions, feeling, ideas and perspectives. His journey also includes his maturation/ coming of age as he does not escape from his issues and problems however he faces them head on. “I have no idea where we’re going. The further we move, the keener my apprehension grows. Still, there is something emboldening about being awake when the rest of the world is sleeping. Like I know something they don’t.” The passage has shifted from the description of late-night Corrigan to the thoughts/feeling of Charlie. He has been called to a mysterious place by a peculiar figure called Jasper Jones. As they travel further and further away from Corrigan the more Charlie’s worry and doubt comes to him about where they are travelling, what they might be doing and why did Japer choose him over everyone else? The readers are unaware of why Charlie is following Jasper blindly and so is Charlie. This is a stage in the narrative where Charlie’s progression as a character starts. The mood is created here from the events that are happening and from the readers attachment to the protagonist. The thoughts of the characters are reflected as the feeling from the readers. In some ways we already understand what might happen based on different reading from

Charlie also learns love in a way to get him better and set him for life. When his mother makes him dig the hole and fill it back up, this is harsh love and will prepare Charlie for later life as it will teach him respect and manners. Charlie deep down knows this is what his mother is trying to teach him, but at the time he just wanted to believe that she was trying to punish, annoy and make him work. Charlie also discovers the love of peers. When Charlie is dragged into the drama of Laura by Jasper he didn’t know if to trust him. But when the truth came out and Jasper wasn’t a part of it, Charlie loved him for telling the truth and being a good friend. Also when Jasper asks Charlie to leave Corrigan with him when they are older, Charlie loves Jasper for the respect and friendship he is giving him. Charlie also sees the act of false love. This is seen by Charlie when he witnesses his mother cheating on his father in the backseat of a car. Charlie knew his parents relationship wasn’t going too well, but he didn’t expect this. He uses this to overcome his mothers power over him. But this example shows us how Charlie has learnt the difference between real love and false love, this will only help him later in life.

In his essay, “Very Like a Whale”, Robert Finch believe that humans have the needs to confront nature, or “otherness” in the world. Finch’s important claims was recollection of the time when he had witnessed a dead corpse of a carcass washed up on shore at Corporation Beach. His claims progress as the first constructs his essay by discussing the most valuable encounter with “otherness” which is the dead whale. The author emphasizes on the claims that he had. Robert Finch wanted to find the reasons why society was so interested and curious about getting a load of sightseeing at a dead whale. The author emphasizes that the corpse had broken, in essence of his own argument, “the normal human pattern”(100). He laid a foundation background

The claim further argues that said stress can be directly blamed for the violent outbursts of the orcas against the training staff. When whales are taken away from their families in the wild waters, they grieve the pain and suffering that is associated with that parting, thus making the whales an emotional time bomb. The documentary provides grounds to argue that orcas suffer the emotional repercussions of separation, much like humans do by with the fact that scientists have proven them to be conscious of human-like relationships and feelings via MRI’s. Moreover, included in this documentary was a commercial of a killer whale giving birth to baby Kalina. Much like our society, killer whales value their relationships with their offspring. Once Kalina was taken from her mother, Katina, is shown being immobile in the corner of the tank, audibly screeching and crying. Being able to see and hear the tragic response of the mother makes the audience empathize with the orca and want to cry for her. Incorporating this event shows how holding orcas in captivity can negatively affect them psychologically. This vivid scene gives the audience the ability to sympathize on a personal level with a mammal other than

• empathy is created as we grow fond of the protagonist who shares a story of hardship

Killer whales, also known as orcas, are the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family. In their natural habitat, killer whales have been described as docile and majestic creatures. Killer whales are known to travel in pods that are composed of matrilines. Matrilines are groups of whales connected by maternal descent. Relationships between killer whale calves and their mother are extremely close knit (“Behavior”). Beginning in 1965, SeaWorld – a marine zoo, began capturing whales from the wild to perform in shows for park visitors’ entertainment (“10 Things You Didn’t Know”). In the documentary Blackfish, director Gabriela Cowperthwaite urges and reassures audience members that keeping these large creatures in captivity is a horrible thing that is dangerous for both the whales as well as the humans that interact with them. To accomplish this persuasion, Cowperthwaite employs the use of rhetorical devices ethos, pathos, and logos to solidify her claims.

Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimp is an essay written by Joy Williams, about the overwhelming complacency that todays culture shows towards nature.Williams argues in a very satirical way, that todays culture has all but completely lost touch with what nature really is, and that unless we as a nation change our morals regarding the role that nature plays in human existence, we may very well be witnessing the dawn of our own destruction.

“Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself.” (Mohsin Hamid) The 1937 novel by John Steinbeck, tells the story of George and Lennie who work on a farm with Slim, Carlson, Whit, Candy, Curley, Crooks and the boss, as well as Curley’s wife. Lennie has a mental disability and love to pet small, soft things, he means no harm and is very forgetful, but when he does something horrible, on accident, George has no other option but to do something Lennie would have never thought George would’ve done. Through the characters Crooks, Curley's wife, and Lennie, John Steinbeck says empathy is needed to cure cruelty.

“Nature did not put whales on this earth to splash kid while stuck in a pen” (Velez-Mitchell, n.d) this magnificent quote shows us that all around the world millions of aquariums use whales as an entertainment object, and people only see the stereotype that the show wants to transmit, but whales are really much more than that. On most aquariums whales are just allowed to act under the trainer’s orders, so that way killer whales are seen as “cute” by the public. Behind all this cute behavior there always a reason, like for example the whales broken teeth are because of the million times they fight with each other with sexual or game intensions, try to chew the glass is also something that whales in captivity do and that’s not normal on free whales, sometimes whales are seen as aggressive but that’s not their fault, mostly they are trying to play because of boredom or a lot of repressed energy that they don’t use.

That there are various perspectives to the white whale as symbol is a result of the value which Melville