I Am Suddenly Left Alone

Empathy Lies At The Heart Of Gatsby, Like So Many Other Great Novels-the Biggest Sin Is To Be Blind To Others Problems And Pains. Not Seeing Them Means Denying Their Existence.

You Don't Read Gatsby, I Said, To Learn Whether Adultery Is Good Or Bad But To Learn About How Complicated Issues Such As Adultery And Fidelity And Marriage Are. A Great Novel Heightens Your Senses And Sensitivity To The Complexities Of Life And Of Individuals, And Prevents You From The Self-righteousness That Sees Morality In Fixed Formulas About Good And Evil.

I Believe That It Is Only Through Empathy, That The Pain Experienced By An Algerian Woman, A North Korean Dissident, A Rwandan Child Or An Iraqi Prisoner, Becomes Real To Me And Not Just Passing News. And It Is At Times Like This When I Ask Myself, Am I Prepared - Like Huck Finn - To Give Up Sunday School Heaven For The Kind Of Hell That Huck Chose?

The Revolution Taught Me Not To Be Consoled By Other People's Miseries, Not To Feel Thankful Because So Many Others Had Suffered More. Pain And Loss, Like Love And Joy, Are Unique And Personal; They Cannot Be Modified By Comparison To Others.

Every Fairy Tale Offers The Potential To Surpass Present Limits, So In A Sense The Fairy Tale Offers You Freedoms That Reality Denies.