Empathy for T-Ray

Having never read the book, I get the impression that the audience is supposed to empathise with the film version of the T-Ray character far more than was characterised in the book.

Its just that some of the lines from the film lend themselves to understanding T-Ray rather than outright demonizing him, thus helping Lily come to terms with him in the concluding part of the film.

For example despite how abusive he is to Lily, he wishes her happy birthday the very next day which I suppose is to show that he does deep down care for her even if he doesn't demonstrate it in any other way.

Also, I loved May's line about "sometimes not feeling is the only way you can survive". I think this essentially sums up the T-Ray character, a man who stopped feeling to survive at the expense of not being able to give love to his only daughter and ultimately causing her much pain.

I think I'm just drawn to the often unexplored complex characters who impact the story so significantly.