How does narrative writing help students develop empathy and understand point of view?

• A. It focuses only on plot structure and ignores character feelings.
• B. It allows exploration of different perspectives and experiences; practice in voice and character thinking.
• C. It teaches mathematical reasoning within narrative contexts.
• D. It eliminates the need to consider audience.

Answer: (B)

Narrative writing helps students develop empathy and understand point of view by having them imagine life from another character’s experiences and express their thoughts and feelings through a distinct voice. When students write from a character’s perspective or analyze a narrator’s stance, they consider how experiences, background, and motives shape what that character thinks, feels, and notices. This practice makes it possible to see events through someone else’s eyes, not just their own.

Using voice effectively—choosing words, sentence patterns, and tone that fit a character’s age, culture, or situation—helps students feel what the character might be thinking, even if they would react differently themselves. This strengthens the sense that there can be valid, competing viewpoints about the same moment. Narratives also invite students to explore why a character might interpret events in a particular way, which builds empathy by connecting feelings to real-life experiences.

The other ideas don’t fit as well: focusing only on plot ignores the human element of stories; math has no place in this context; and assuming readers are not part of the equation misses how audience awareness shapes how a point of view is conveyed.