How Does Empathy Play In Wagamese's Life

Many authors express themselves through their writing using their life experiences as inspiration. Richard Wagamese is no exception; he was born in Minaki, Ontario and comes from Ojibway decent. As a child, he was taken away from his biological family and put into several foster homes, where he faced neglect and abuse. Later on in his life, he began to write books and poetry to cope. He wrote the novel, Medicine Walk, the story of a boy and his displaced father who bond before the father dies of a fatal disease. Empathy is a common reoccurrence throughout the story, as the protagonist, Frank Starlight, and Richard Wagamese have both learned many lessons from childhood stories. Family is another influence in the lives of Frank and Wagamese,

In the novel, Eldon and Frank Starlight, who are father and son, have a strained relationship. When Eldon accused Frank of an inability to understand war because he had never fought in one before, Frank said, “‘Not one of my own, leastways.’ ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ ‘Means I’m still livin’ the one you never finished,’ (Wagamese 168).” He was explaining to his father that experiences don’t need to be physically experienced; they may also be mentally experienced. Frank knows a different type of war. It is the war where he grew up not knowing anything about his past, other than the fact that he is an Indigenous person. Whereas, Eldon’s war experience was a physical experience with the trauma and post traumatic stress of fighting in the Korean War. Inevitably, Frank ends up realizing that these stories though different, through empathy and an attempt to understand each other, they can bring people together. Wagamese’s strong connection to empathy is a grueling one. In an interview done with Shelagh Rogers, Wagamese spoke about not being there for his children. He said, "The lack of a significant parent is really, really a profound sorrow, a profound loss. It's a bruise that never really heals" (Rogers). With the difficult history of Wagamese’s family, he wanted to be able to pass on those meaningful lessons learned to his children. This is important because having learnt something like that from a parent or guardian is really meaningful to a child; it is a part of the parent and their past that will never leave and carries on through the child. The authors empathetic portrayal of his characters is direct result of the cultural influences of his