1. Journal 10: Characterization
Learning Targets:
Students will be able to list the 5 methods of indirect characterization authors’ use.
Students will be able to identify the effect one method of indirect characterization has on a character in Bless Me, Ultima.
Students will be able to describe characters from Bless Me, Ultima.
Students will be able to cite relevant, thorough textual evidence in support of a thesis.
Students will be able to write specific and provable thesis statements that answers a question and includes a “so what.”

2. List the first 5 adjectives that pop into your mind to describe the following characters’ personalities. Adjective: a word or phrase naming an attribute, added to or grammatically related to a noun to modify or describe it.

6. Gabriel Márez (Antonio’s Father)
Adjectives we could use to describe Antonio’s father’s personality include bitter, free-spirited, depressed, strong, loyal, etc.

7. Antonio and Ultima
Write a list down of 6 adjectives you could use to describe Antonio and 6 for Ultima.

8. What did we come up with? Antonio: Ultima: Innocent Naïve _______ Wise
Mystical
_______

9. How do authors create their characters as authentic, real seeming people?
Why do we all have similar (consistent) ideas about characters?

10. Characterization and the literary analysis pyramid…
Characterization: how writers create or reveal the personality of their characters. This includes how characters are represented by the author or narrator. Two Kinds:
Direct Characterization: readers are explicitly told what the personality of a character is
Indirect Characterization: readers implicitly discover the personality of characters through the 5 methods

11. Examples
Direct Characterization: readers are explicitly told what the personality of a character is using adjectives and other rhetorical methods
Example:
“I looked at the three of them standing there, and I felt I was seeing them for the last time: Ultima in her wisdom, my mother in her dream, and my father in his rebellion.” (Anaya, 52).

12. Methods of Indirect Characterization
What a character does
What a character says
What a character thinks
What others’ say about a character
What a character looks like
Link to practice analysis from Disney’s Frozen
Can be a larger technique…

13. Example: Indirect Characterization
What a character does
What a character says
What a character thinks
What others’ say about a character
What a character looks like (appearance)

14. Song example: “Cowboy Dan” by Modest Mouse
LYRICS: Well, Cowboy Dan's a major player in the cowboy scene He goes to the reservation drinks and gets mean He's gonna start a war He hops in his pickup puts the pedal to the floor And says "I got mine but I want more" He drove the desert, fired his rifle in the sky And says, "God if I have to die you will have to die" I didn't move to the city, the city moved to me And I want out desperately Can't do it, not even if sober Can't get that engine turned over Standing in the tall grass Thinking nothing You know we need oxygen to breath (2:40) Whenever you are walking you're just moving the ground Whenever you are talking you're just moving your mouth Where ever you look you're just looking down
Listen to the song and list 3-5 pieces of indirect characterization and then analyze them to support an claim about Cowboy Dan’s personality!

15. Song example: “Cowboy Dan” by Modest Mouse
Listen to the song and list 3-5 pieces of indirect characterization and then analyze them to support a claim about Cowboy Dan’s personality!
Well, Cowboy Dan's a major player in the cowboy scene He goes to the reservation drinks and gets mean He's gonna start a war He hops in his pickup puts the pedal to the floor And says "I got mine but I want more" He drove the desert, fired his rifle in the sky And says, "God if I have to die you will have to die" I didn't move to the city, the city moved to me And I want out desperately Can't do it, not even if sober Can't get that engine turned over Standing in the tall grass Thinking nothing

16. Task
Each person will be assigned to a group that will record important quotes (8-10 total) from chapters 1-6 for one of the characterization methods for either Ultima, Antonio, or Maria Márez on butcher paper. Focus on things that are important and tell about the character. Antonio’s dream sequences are important!!!!!!!! Good quotes will show the character’s personality in some way. #ProTip: Sometimes there is little difference between what Antonio says or thinks because of the first person narrator voice. This also causes a lot of what others say to seem like Antonio’s thoughts. Then we will jigsaw these together to have a complete characterization chart.

17. Example: Antonio’s Father
Chapter
Says
Thinks
Others Say 1 2
-town “steals our freedom” (25)
-They should treat Lupito like a human (20)
-Hates Las Pasturas (23) 3
-“He cursed the weak-willed men if the town that who did not understand the freedom a man of Ilano must have, and cursed the war for taking his sons away.” (28)
-“And if there was very much anger in him he cursed my mother because she was the daughter of farmers, and it was she who kept him shackled to one piece of land.” (28)
-“My father was not a strong believer in religion.” & “it was not a good feeling my father had for priests.” (29)
-“my father was becoming irritated at having to go to church and listen to a sermon too,” (31)
-Antonio: “If he drank too much he came home a bitter man, then he was at war with everyone.”
-Antonio’s mother: “the Marez clan was full of freethinkers, which was blasphemy to her,” (29)
-Antonio: “I wondered how heavy last night’s sin lay on his soul.” (32)
-Ultima: “’A man of the Ilano’ she said, ‘will not take the life of a Illanero unless there is just cause. And I do not think your father fired at Lupito last night.’” (33)

18. Chapters 1-6, but start with 1-4.
Maria Marez
Gabriel Marez
Ultima
Antonio
What she does: Table 3
What he does: Table 2
What she does:
Table 4
What he does: Table 1
What she says:
Table 7
What he says: Table 5
What she says: Table 6
What he says:
Table 11
What she thinks: Table 15
What he thinks: Table 14
What she thinks:
What he thinks:
Table 8 Table 10
What others say: Table 13
What others say: Table 12
What others say: Table 16
What others say:
Appearance:
Chapters 1-6, but start with 1-4.

19. Chapters 1-6, but start with 1-4.
Maria Marez
Gabriel Marez
Ultima
Antonio
What she does:
Table 3
What he does: Table 2
What he does:
What she says:
Table 4
What he says: table 5
What she says: Table 7
What he says:
What she thinks:
What he thinks:
Table 6
What others say: Table 13
What others say: Table 12
What others say:
Appearance:
Chapters 1-6, but start with 1-4.