In this article, the author discusses how teachers can develop empathy in students through reading and writing about literature, which contributes to their development as citizens in a global community. By choosing texts that trigger empathic reactions, English teachers can help students better understand others' experiences with oppression and even promote good global citizenship skills such as participating in community efforts and promoting social justice initiatives. In reading a broad range of texts, students realize that the authors determine their status as "outsiders" or "misfits," and many (if not all) individuals may fit into one of these categories - in life and in fiction - through social ostracism or norms. The concerns from teachers and students look different from one another. Teachers thought about form and content, while students focused on personal connections to the text and issues of feeling or affect that the text provoked. By reading texts that focus on others' experiences, students not only learn how historical and cultural events happened but also what it was like for those events to happen.