Character

Writer, the Creator?  Every real writer I ever knew, and I have known many both in Europe and in this country, starts with people and their emotions and actions and lets them make their own stories. A woman once applied for one of my classes when I was teaching at Columbia University. “I want to be a writer,” she told me, “so I can be like God and make people do what I want them to do.” I had to tell her it was just the opposite. Characters make the author do what they want him to do. –Martha Foley, Best American Short Stories (Forward)

Character  Motivation  Flat [stock/caricature] (barely developed or stereotypical) v.s. round (well developed, closely involved in and responsive to the action)  Static v.s. dynamic  Hero v.s. antihero  (antagonist [foil] v.s. protagonist)  Concrete universal

Flat / Stock / Caricature He/she is…, and…, and…

Round He/she is …, but (sometimes)….

Protagonist v.s. Antagonist

Heroes

Without a Hero?

Antiheroes

Protagonists=Heroes? Antagonist=Antiheroes?

Characterization  Explicit presentation through direct exposition  Presentation in conversation and/or action, with little or no explicit comment  Representation of the impact of actions and emotions on the character’s inner self from with the character without comment on him/her  ?

The name of the character  A character, first of all, is the noise of his name.(William Gass, Fiction and Figures of Life, 1970)  Allusion (e.g., the Lottery) Lottery

Checklist: Writing about Character  Who is the story’s protagonist? Who is the antagonist? Who are the other major characters?  Who are the minor characters? What roles do they play in the story? How would the story be different without them?  What do the major characters look like? Is their physical appearance important?  What are the major characters’ most noticeable personality traits?  What are the major characters’ likes and dislikes? Their strengths and weaknesses?  What are we told about the major characters’ backgrounds and prior experiences? What can we infer?

Checklist: Writing about Character  Are the characters round or flat?  Are the characters dynamic or static?  Does the story include any stock characters? Any caricatures? Does any character serve as a foil?  Do the characters act in a way that is consistent with how readers expect them to act?  With which characters are readers likely to be most sympathetic? Least sympathetic?

Examples  Blackmail: Duke, Duchess, Ogilvie  A Clean, Well-lighted Place: older waiter, younger waiter, old man  The Lottery: Bill and Tessie Hutchinson, Mrs. Delacroix, Mr. Summers, old man Warner, etc.  A&P: Sammy, Queenie, Lengel, Stokesie, etc.  A Rose for Emily: Emily, Homer, Judge Stevens, Mr. Grierson, Tobe, etc.  The Tell-Tale Heart: the narrator, his old man  Araby: the narrator, his aunt and uncle, Mangan’s sister, etc.

Assignment  Please read Alice Walker’s Everyday Use with the checklist for point of view and prepare for the “one-sentence comment” on its characters.