Woke Up Like This

Lea depicts young Char’s and J. T.’s incapacity for empathy early in the novel, and their character development conveys the importance of showing empathy toward others. In high school, they are 17 years old, and they struggle to interpret and predict each other’s emotions. For example, just prior to the hallway tampon episode, J. T. and Char squabble at their lockers, and it’s clear that they fail to understand one another, despite the social clues. J. T. purposefully races Char there, knowing that she cannot access her locker while he’s at his. He is joking around, while she is deadly serious; she doesn’t understand that he is misreading her rather than intentionally being a jerk, and, likewise, he doesn’t understand that she is getting genuinely frustrated, not just playfully so. This situation is emblematic of their inability to see a situation from the other’s perspective.

When Char and J. T. jump into their future, they can more adroitly engage in perspective taking as adults, and they are far more capable of interpreting each other’s emotions. When J. T. learns about his mother’s new boyfriend, Char “can tell from [his] expression that he didn’t know about this new guy,” and she “instinctively” puts her hand on J.