Sympathy For Andy Analysis

The author creates sympathy for Andy with vivid imagery, relationships, and irony. Vivid imagery helps to paint a picture of what is happening to Andy. Discussing the love of his life, Laura, helps readers to relate to Andy and feel more sympathetic for him. The author’s use of irony shows how Andy is somewhat unlucky because he runs into people who can help him but because of unfortunate circumstances they choose not to help him. All of these things make readers feel compassionate for Andy.

Descriptive language can paint a picture for the reader, and the author does this to convince the readers to sympathize for Andy. Throughout the story the author provides great detail so we understand what is happening to Andy and let's us know what he is thinking. At the beginning of the first paragraph it says, “The knife entered just below his rib cage and had been drawn across his body violently, tearing a wide gap in his flesh” (pg 1). Andy’s wounds have been described so vividly that readers can clearly imagine what happened to him. On page 6, the author says “The knife had not been plunged in hatred of Andy. The knife only hated the purple jacket. The jacket was a stupid meaningless thing that was robbing him of his life.” This creates empathy for Andy because we know he was stabbed for something he is

The author uses this to his advantage by describing the love of Andy’s life, Laura. We understand his relationship with Laura when he says “someday he would marry Laura. Someday he would marry her and they would have a lot of kids, and then they would get out of the neighborhood” ( page 1). This shows that Andy had hopes for the future and was in love with Laura. He thinks of Laura when he hears Freddie and Angela kissing in the alley and he thinks of Laura and if he’ll ever kiss her again. The thought of not getting to kiss or even see his true love before he dies creates a feeling of sympathy for