ABSTRACT
It’s easy to see why Disney and Chaplin put the focus on sympathy. The Little Tramp was, after all, well, a bum, a down-and-outer. His clothes didn’t fit, and his shoes were several sizes too large. He couldn’t hold a job, and he rarely enjoyed a healthy romantic relationship. He lived on the bottom rungs of society’s ladder. So, yes, the audience felt sorry for him. But the reason they cheered so loudly for him, and the real reason he was so popular, is that he was always trying to improve himself. The Little Tramp never gave up. Humans act to survive, and that mandate is hard wired into us. A man who will not pull himself together during hard times is going to elicit sympathy, not empathy. But if he continues not to pull himself together for long, everybody around him will start distancing from him emotionally.
