Defining Characterization

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Brendan Doyle
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1 Defining is the process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character. is revealed through direct characterization and indirect characterization. Direct tells the audience what the personality of the character is. Example: The patient boy and quiet girl were both well mannered and did not disobey their mother. : The author is directly telling the audience the personality of these two children. The boy is patient and the girl is quiet. Indirect shows things that reveal the personality of a character. There are five different methods of indirect characterization: toward the character. What does the character say? How does the character speak? What is revealed through the character s private thoughts and feelings? What is revealed through the character s effect on other people? How do other characters feel or behave in reaction to the character? What does the character do? How does the character behave? What does the character look like? How does the character dress? TIP #1: TIP #2: Use the mnemonic device of STEAL to remember the five types of indirect characterization Use indirect characterization to analyze visual media: Film: Look at how the character dresses and moves. Note the facial expressions when the director moves in for a close-up shot. Drama: Pay attention to the way that the characters reveal their thoughts during a soliloquy.

2 of Indirect from The Cat in the Hat Many of the words spoken by the cat at the beginning of the story have an upbeat connotative meaning. For instance, the cat says to the children, But we can have / Lots of fun that is funny! (7). So all we could do was to And we did not like it. Not one little bit (3). Throughout the first three quarters of the story, three different illustrations portray the fish scowling at the cat (11, 25, and 37) immediately after each of the cat s activities. When the cat returns to clean up his mess at the end of the story the fish is shown with a smile on his face (57). On page 18, the cat engages in UP-UP-UP with a fish an activity that involves the cat standing on a ball while balancing seven objects. Later in the story, the cat releases two things that fly kites inside the house. Throughout the first three-quarters of the story, the cat is shown with a smile on his face. Towards the end of the story, however, when the cat is told to leave, he is shown leaving the house with slumped shoulders and a sad face. This reveals that the cat s character is an upbeat character that likes to have fun. These are the thoughts of the narrator as he stares out the window on a rainy day. These thoughts reveal that this character is not happy about his current situation. The scowls on the fish s face support the argument that the cat s behavior at the beginning of the story is not acceptable to the fish. The fish s smile at the end of the story reveals that the cat is engaging in behavior that is now acceptable to the fish. These activities are outrageous, dangerous and should not be conducted in the house. They reveal that the cat s character is not concerned about rules related to safety and appropriateness. The smiles reveal that the cat is enjoying himself and is not apologetic for his outrageous behavior. The frown and slumped shoulders at the end of the story show that he is not enjoying himself anymore.

3 of Indirect from The Cat in the Hat Character: The Cat

4 of Indirect from The Cat in the Hat Character: The Fish

5 of Indirect from The Cat in the Hat Character: The Narrator and Sally

6 Identifying Character Traits Characters do things. They feel things. They hear things. They say things. They think things. They go places. They can walk, run, leap, and jump. They may sit and rock in a rocking chair. They may just lie in bed, sleep, and dream. But the important thing is that characters act. And these actions show us what kind of people these characters are: friendly, sad, nosey, happy, lovestruck, confused, angry, or inventive. What is a character trait? When we talk about a character, we often describe that character in terms of character traits, descriptive adjectives like happy or sad that tell us the specific qualities of the character. They're the same kinds of words that we might use to describe ourselves or others, but we're using them to describe fictional characters in something we've read. The author may tell us these traits directly, but more often the author will show us these traits in action. Our job as readers is to draw a conclusion about the character's traits (to infer them) from what the character says, thinks, and does. We might infer a character trait from something a character does only once, or we might draw our conclusions from a series of things the character says and does. How do we find a character 's traits? An easy way to think about characters is to use a simple chart like the one below. You can start anywhere. There's no wrong way to make your list: jot down actions that the character takes then match them with descriptive adjectives in the character traits column. list character traits that match your character; then gather a list of actions from the book that support the traits you've listed jump back and forth between the columns listing ideas as they come to you; then go back to fill in the matching information for the related column. For this example, we'll use the character of Harry Potter from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. chases Malfoy when he takes Neville's Remembrall runs to warn Hermione about the Mountain Troll on Halloween and helps Ron fight the Troll works to protect the Sorcerer's Stone and keep it away from Lord Voldemort courageous, brave

7 Sample Character Traits able active adventurous affectionate afraid alert ambitious angry annoyed anxious apologetic arrogant attentive average bad blue bold bored bossy brainy brave bright brilliant busy calm careful careless cautious charming cheerful childish clever clumsy coarse concerned confident confused considerate cooperative courageous cowardly cross cruel curious dangerous daring dark decisive demanding dependable depressed determined discouraged dishonest disrespectful doubtful dull dutiful eager easygoing efficient embarrassed encouraging energetic evil excited expert fair faithful fearless fierce foolish fortunate foul fresh friendly frustrated funny gentle giving glamorous gloomy good graceful grateful greedy grouchy grumpy guilty happy harsh hateful healthy helpful honest hopeful hopeless humorous ignorant imaginative impatient impolite inconsiderate independent industrious innocent intelligent jealous kindly lazy leader lively lonely loving loyal lucky mature mean messy miserable mysterious naughty nervous nice noisy obedient obnoxious old peaceful picky pleasant polite poor popular positive precise proper proud quick quiet rational reliable religious responsible restless rich rough rowdy rude sad safe satisfied scared secretive selfish serious sharp short shy silly skillful sly smart sneaky sorry spoiled stingy strange strict stubborn sweet talented tall thankful thoughtful thoughtless tired tolerant touchy trusting trustworthy unfriendly unhappy upset useful warm weak wicked wise worried wrong young

Defining Characterization

Defining Characterization Defining is the process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character. is revealed through direct characterization and indirect characterization. Direct tells the audience what the personality