Sympathy to Empathy: Writing Characters That Connect

In 2015, my wife and I took our kids to see the movie “Inside Out.” As a writer of fiction and nonfiction, I was blown away by what the screenwriters did to explore the inner workings of humans in an animated movie. The movie was so impactful, that it comes up time and again when the subject of emotional connections and empathy comes up in popular culture.

If you haven’t seen it yet, “Inside Out” is a great example of empathy because it shows how a child’s mind works and how her emotions affect how she acts. The movie centers around Riley Andersen who has her life uprooted when she and her family move to a new town.

The story gives each of Riley’s five main feelings a face: joy, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust. As these feelings interact, the movie looks at empathy in different ways.

One way the movie shows empathy is through the character of Joy. At first, Joy tries to stop Sadness from playing a role in the child’s emotional life, but she soon realizes that Sadness is important because it helps the child understand and care about other people.

The relationship between Joy and Sadness is another way the movie shows empathy. Both Joy and Sadness get lost in the long-term memory part of the mind and learn to work together to help the child deal with her feelings and understand…