How does Robert Swindells create sympathy for Link, and homeless people, in his novel, Stone Cold?

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How does Robert Swindells create sympathy for Link, and homeless people, in his novel, “Stone Cold”?

In the novel “Stone Cold”, Swindells tries to create a sympathetic atmosphere for, one of the main characters, “Link” and other homeless people in general. To do this; he uses a variety of techniques in his novel to help get the reader too sympathise with Link and the other homeless people.

The first technique he uses is first person narrative. This is shown when Link says; “they avoid looking at me. Right now I’m sitting in a doorway watching the passers-by”. This uses first person narrative as the words “me” and “I’m” have been used, meaning Link is saying it. He implies that it is the pedestrians trying to “avoid” him, acting like he is not there. As if he’s invisible. Which is shown when Swindells uses the word “they”- also making the reader feel as if Link is addressing them, engaging the reader, making them feel pity and guilt towards Link. He also uses first person narrative when he says, “It was still dark, and bitterly cold as I began to peel of my sleeping bag”. Again, he uses first person narrative as he uses the words “me” and “I”.  This creates sympathy as he uses strong words like “bitterly” which makes emphasises the fact how cold he is. As words like “dark” has been used it gives the reader an insight of link’s feelings of how frightened he is, as he “peels” of his sleeping bag, constantly in pain- in the depths of despair.

Secondly, the author creates sympathy by showing the reasons for becoming homeless, how easy it seems to become homeless and that it’s not always their fault for ending up on the streets. This is shown right at the beginning of the book when Link states; “But that’s not why I ended up like this. No Vincent’s to blame for that”. As soon as the reader finishes reading this, they are instantly curious of: Who Vincent is? Why he done what he did? Also, how he done it? This is emphasised when Link says, “Vincent is to blame.” Using a short sentence and leaving the reader on a cliff-hanger. This creates sympathy for Link as it shows how it was not in any way link’s fault for becoming how he is and makes the reader think of what dreadful thing Vincent done too make a fourteen year-old boy run away from his warm, safe and secure on the “Stone Cold” pavements”, in the freezing, frightening and reckless streets of London.

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Thirdly, when Link arrives in London it is his very first time, during this time period he is presented to be very naïve; making many vital mistakes which can never be fixed. This is shown as Link uses the metaphor, “You’re on the old downward spiral and that’s that,” When Link says the word “old” in the metaphor to describe the “spiral” it makes it seem as if Link has many mistakes before Link was homeless, causing the reader too sympathise with Link. Also, Link stats; “that was my second mistake”, causing the reader too expect more mistakes too come ...

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