ENG 3U1 Notes

Unit One: Short Stories, Characterization, Content
We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Romans 5: 3-5

What interests me is people, that is, characters – creating them, finding out about them, revealing them through showing how they think and feel, what they say and do.
Patricia Grace

Just as there can be no truly successful story without a setting, so too, can no truly successful story take place without characters. The greatest story ever told – Christ’s mission, crucifixion and resurrection – places this character in a particular setting with certain challenges. He overcomes them and then renews the faith of his followers. Those who read stories creatively recognize that there are essentially three ways in which a writer connects a reader with a character: Through a character’s physical appearance or actions
A character’s manner of standing, walking, facial features, smile, frown, clothing, manners, gestures, eating or drinking, driving …

Through a character’s thoughts or speech.
Interior monologues and stream of consciousness can actually imitate the random thoughts of a character, often revealing innermost feelings. Use of a dialect, pauses, repetition of certain phrases – all of these can help to establish a character in the mind of a reader.

Through a character’s interaction with other characters.
The way a character treats others as well as their response to her or him deepens a reader’s understanding of a characters’ nature. Interaction and reaction may include thoughts, speech or actions.

All successful attempts at characterization take the above three approaches into consideration. Another key element to understanding character is the different types of characters:
Types of Characters
Flat Character
Round Character
This character does not grow or learn anything throughout the story. Therefore, he or she doesn’t change in personality; there is no real development throughout. Very often, they have only one main personality trait. For this reason, these characters often play a minor or secondary role in a story.
Examples: George Costanza in Seinfeld, the TV series
Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby. Jack in The Lord of the Flies.
Stock characters are instantly recognizable as flat characters. They are familiar to us through books, magazines, TV shows and other media. Examples are the jolly monk, the wisecracking short fat man, the dizzy blonde, the strong but dumb jock, the nerdy bookworm and the prudish librarian. These characters appear over and over again; most often, they have minor importance.
These characters do grow and learn something throughout a story. They develop and change often maturing or gaining new insights. They have more than one personality trait. Often they are the main character or protagonist in a short story. Examples: Harry Potter throughout all the books and movies in the series.
Nick in The Great Gatsby.
Ralph in The Lord of the Flies.
Certain stories and novels focus on round character’s passage from innocence to maturity. These are called bildungsroman or “coming of age stories.” Examples of this are Pip in Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, Gene in John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, Holden in J.D, Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. The Final Word… Characterization and Motivation
A character must be believable. Characters need motivation – a reason for behaving, looking, speaking and thinking the way they do. In a sense, we need to know what a character’s short or long-term goals are, along with the reasons behind those goals. Successful characters make us feel for them; we become interested in their fate.