Art communicates and empathy and sympathy are related. What a particular work communicates is hard to pin down, and of course open to interpretation which chan

Art communicates and empathy and sympathy are related. What a particular work communicates is hard to pin down, and of course open to interpretation which changes over time (for example views of Alice in Wonderland have shifted due to revelations about the character of the author and his relation with his Alice), but it's certainly not possible to discuss whether a book sympathises with the central character if you don't engage with what the book says and instead talk in generalities.