What is the Meaning of Life? On your blog, write your ideas on what you feel is the meaning of life. Comment on another student's thoughts/ideas.

Character Development When you read a story, the way characters are portrayed, usually decides whether or not you will enjoy the story. Characters not only serve as a way for the reader to connect to the storyline, but it also helps forces the plot forward.

The characters also offer other functions: - they describe the action - make predictions of what may happen - engage in conversation with other characters - offer judgements about other characters found in the story, as well as about the events - react to the events that occur in the story and the way these events impact other characters

Character Development Features A character's features can be divided into four categories. Category 1: General background features Category 2: Physical features The character's environment and herdedity - Where does the character live? - What is the character's nationality? - What are his/her spiritual beliefs? - What is his/her economic status? - What is her/her family situation? The character's description - What colour eyes and hair does the character have? - Does he/she have any distinguishable facial features? - How old is the character? - What is the character's height and weight

Character Development Features Category 3: Personality features Category 4: Emotional features The character's social or moral aspects - what type of personality does the character have? - What weaknesses does the character have? - What strengths does the character have? - Is the character an optimist or a pessimist? - What is the character's belief system? The character's mental or psychological state - How does the character deal with conflict? - How does the character deal with stress and stressful situations? - How does he/she solve problems?

Character Development in Tuesdays with Morrie Characters in a text are classified as either being a rounded character or a flat character. This depends on the degree a character is revealed or developed. Main characters, such as Morrie, are rounded characters because the audience reads on detailed facts and information about the character's life. Minor characters, such as Janine, are flat characters, because the reader know very little or only small details about the character's life. Flat characters serve to support the main character. They are not meant to be seen but rather how the main character interacts with them and to help the audience understand the main character by giving insight in their background, experiences, or knowledge.

Characters in Tuesdays with Morrie Tuesdays with Morrie, contains many characters that either influence Morrie, or Morrie influences them. On your blog, please write a description for each character, as well as their role in Morrie's life or Morrie's influence on them. Ted Koppel Charlotte Janine Peter Charlie David Eva Maurie Stein Norman Connie Rob and Jon Tony

Character Analysis When you examine how a character develops, you are perfoming an analysis. To evaluate how a character effectively fulfill their purpose in the story, the following key questions can help. - What does the character want? What is their driving goal? - What does the character do to get what they want? - What is the character's fatal flaw or greatest weakness? - What is the character's greatest strength? - How does the character's greatest strength fit into the text plot? - What do those visual symbol(s) or icon(s) represent?

Answering the Questions Please take the questions from the last slide, and apply them to the character, Mitch Albom. All of you are analyzing the character, so it is important that the answers are thoughtful. Post these on your blog. The characters in Tuesdays with Morrie, through their dependencies on one another, are able to understand themselves better. All characters journey towards solving the answer to the question “What is the meaning of life?” . Morrie, through his guidance and wisdom, helps others figure out this answer for themselves.

Post-Structualist Analysis The theory of literary criticism developed when people recognized that understanding a text depends on the reader, and to properly study a text, a reader must see how the text can be relatable to his or her own personal concept of self.

Who Wields the Power? When you examine a text through a post-structuralist viewpoint, you look at the aspects of power. This includes, how is power distributed, the types of power the character has, and whose perspectives are being presented. A few questions a post- structuralist critic would ask towards the division of power include: -Who has power (and what kind of power) in the text? How does this power work and change as the story progresses? - Whose interests does the story serve? - What or whose values build the story? How are these shown? - What incidents and which characters suggest these values?

Who Wields the Power? In many stories, when power is seen, it is often misused by the characters that have it. This includes dominating others or to earn more money. However, there are a few times where characters use their power to benefit others. Mitch and Morrie are examples of these characters. - How are Mitch and Morrie powerless without the other's presence? - Who has power in the text? What type of power do they wield? - Does the power change? If so, how does it change? - How does the power influence or affect the other characters?