Three ways in which the author tries to gain a reader’s sympathy for Matt are: by describing Matt’s depression and grieving process for his son’s murder, by demonstrating Matt’s desire for justice towards the killer of his son, and by explaining Matt’s unconditional love for his son and wife.
The author tries to gain a reader’s sympathy for Matt by describing Matt’s depression and grieving process for his son’s murder. The author illustrates what Matt feels when Richard Strout kills his son. When Matt loses Frank, “he [feels] that all the fears he had borne while they were growing up, and all the grief he had been afraid of […] had [back] up like a huge wave and [strike] him on the beach and [sweep] him out of sea” (1129). Matt feels the same way each day, and everyday “in his soul he [shoots] Richard Strout in the face” (1129). This demonstrates that ever since Frank died, Matt has…show more content… When Matt looks at “Strout’s large, big-knuckled hands […]” (1134), he sees his son’s face. But, Matt did not only picture his son’s face with “[…] stiches and bruised eye and swollen lips” (1134), he rather picture himself “gently touching Frank’s jaw […]” (1134). This demonstrates that Matt constantly sees his son in every objects or symbol that relates to him. For example, when Matt looks at the “back of Strout’s head” (1131), he thinks of Frank’s grave. When Matt also “[looks] at [Strout’s] hips” and “wide jaw”, he thinks of “Frank’s doomed and fearful eyes looking up from the couch” (1132). On the other hand, Matt believes that “the quietly harried and quietly pleasurable days of fatherhood” (1124), has been taken away from him forever. We can see that Matt was strongly impacted by the death of his son, because he thinks that he cannot be
