Mini Lesson: Good readers recognize that characters are classified in different ways.

Character Classification CharacterMajorMinor

Major Characters Minor Characters The focus of the story. Change and grow (internally) Reader knows the most about them. Interacts with major characters and helps major characters change and grow Reader knows a limited amount about them.

Let’s Test Your Memory… What characters do you remember from Fever 1793? The characters you most likely recalled are MAJOR characters, like…

MAJOR CHARACTERS: Fourteen-year-old Matilda "Mattie" Cook is the teenage protagonist of a young adult novel. Matilda's Grandfather is a solider. He served under George Washington. He has a pet parrot named King George. Lucille Cook, Mattie’s mother and an unintentional antagonist. Eliza: free a black woman who works at Matilda's family's coffeehouse. Nathaniel Benson is Mattie's primary love interest in the novel. He's a painter and an apprentice to the Peale family.

The characters you might not remember are MINOR characters, like…

MINOR CHARACTERS: Matilda's father died when she was young, having fallen off of a ladder two months after the coffeehouse was opened. Nell is the orphan girl Matilda finds in the streets of Philadelphia and takes in as her own. Polly is a serving girl who worked at the Cook's coffeehouse. She is the first casualty of the fever in Matilda's world. Her beau is named Matthew. Mr. Brown runs The Federal Gazette. Dr. Deveze is the French doctor in charge of fever treatment at Bush Hill. Mrs. Bridget Flagg is one of the caretakers at Bush Hill, the mansion converted into a fever hospital where Matilda and her grandfather take refuge. Joseph is Eliza's brother and a cooper. Dr. Kerr is the second doctor to treat Matilda's mother. He diagnoses her with yellow fever. The Ogilvie Family: Pernilla, Jeannine, and Colette are the snobby women of the Ogilvie family. The twins Robert and William are Eliza's nephews and Joseph's sons. Mother Smith is an elderly black woman who cares for Joseph, Robert, and William, while Eliza works for the Free African Society.

Major CharactersMinor Characters Schooled Character Classification

How can a character be like this TV? How can a character be like this fireworks show?

Character Classification CharacterMajorMinorDynamicStatic

Dynamic Characters Static Characters Undergoes an important change or growth during the story Change is internal (within their character) No significant change or growth

Static Characters Cinderella’s stepmother –In the beginning: mean, cruel, cold –In the end: mean, cruel, cold Cinderella –In the beginning: kind, loyal, honest –In the end: kind, loyal, honest

Dynamic vs. Static Characters Katniss Everdeen –In the beginning: ____ –In the end: _________ Peeta Melark –In the beginning: ____ –In the end: _________ Prim Everdeen –In the beginning: ____ –In the end: _________

Dynamic CharactersStatic Characters Schooled Character Classification

FINAL THOUGHT: No one type of character is superior to another. Each character type might have a different purpose and function, but each are still important to the story.