unit 2

Literary Analyzing Characters

Analysis Slovenly manners, a magnetic personality, a competitive streak—these are the kinds of
Workshop qualities that can shape your impressions of other people. For example, an egomaniac
is probably not someone you would want as a friend. But finding out why that person
behaves the way he or she does might change your opinion. Characters in literature
can be just as complicated as real people. By closely analyzing characters, you can get
more out of the stories you read and gain insights into human nature.

Part 1: Character Development

Writers use many techniques to create their characters. Sometimes, the narrator
of a story will tell you directly about a character, as in this example: “Enrique’s
active imagination often got him into trouble.” More often, though, you will find
out about characters indirectly. The writer may describe
• a character’s physical appearance
• a character’s actions, thoughts, and speech
• other characters’ reactions to and comments about the character
By examining these characterization techniques, you can infer a character’s
traits, or qualities, such as insecurity or bravery. For example, what can you infer
about this character from the following sentences? “Elena eyed her teammates
critically. Am I the only one who knows how to play this game? she thought.”
The extent to which a writer develops a character depends on the character’s
role in a story. Complex, highly developed characters, known as round
characters, take center stage and seem the most lifelike. Flat characters, on the
other hand, are one-sided.

round characters flat characters

Characteristics Characteristics
• are complex; exhibit a • are defined by only one
variety of traits or two traits
• show a range of emotions • show only a few emotions
• display strengths and • may be stereotypes or
weaknesses stock characters
• often change over the • don’t grow or change
course of a story

Role in the Story Role in the Story

• to serve as main characters who make • to serve as minor characters who
a story rich and interesting advance the plot or provide information
• to help define the theme • to reveal something about the main
characters

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 model 1: character traits
How do Mrs. Wilson’s thoughts about her daughter affect your impression
not only of the daughter but also of Mrs. Wilson herself?

from
The Opportunity
Short story by John Cheever Close Read
Mrs. Wilson sometimes thought that her daughter Elise was dumb. Elise 1. Based on Mrs. Wilson’s
was her only daughter, her only child, but Mrs. Wilson was not so blinded thoughts about her
daughter, how would you
by love that the idea that Elise might be stupid did not occasionally cross her
describe Elise?
mind. The girl’s father had died when she was eight, Mrs. Wilson had never
5 remarried, and the girl and her mother lived affectionately and closely. When 2. What do Mrs. Wilson’s
Elise was a child, she had been responsive and lively, but as she grew into thoughts reveal about
the kind of mother she
adolescence, as her body matured, her disposition changed, and some of the
is? Cite details to support
wonderful clarity of her spirit was lost. At sixteen she seemed indolent, and to
your answer.
have developed a stubborn indifference to the hazards and rewards of life.

model 2: round and flat characters

Here, a man named César reflects on the unfortunate turn his life has taken.
As you read, pay attention to César’s thoughts about his son.

from
A Place Where the Sea Remembers
Novel by Sandra Benítez

When he was twenty-one, he had married Concha Ojeda. It was she who Close Read
had allowed him to turn himself over to the sea. But now Concha was gone
1. Is César a round or flat
and in the months since the accident, the boy had gone mute and was clearly character? Cite details to
in decline. The boy needed a mother’s love, he needed a father’s strength, and support your answer.
5 there was none of one and little left of the other. César thought of Concha’s
2. Reread the boxed text.
sister, who lived in Oaxaca. She had asked for the boy. She would raise him
What do you learn about
with her own, she had said at the wake. Since that time, César Burgos had César from his thoughts
agonized over his sister-in-law’s offer and there were moments when he about his sister-in-law’s
thought he would have to let the boy go. offer?
10 He turned to his son, who sat at the table. . . .
“Why don’t you speak?” Cesar cried, heat surging up his neck and into his
cheeks.

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 Part 2: Character Behavior
Once you understand who the characters are, the next questions concern why
they act a certain way and how they change. Attempting to answer these
questions not only takes you deeper into the story but also brings you closer
to understanding the complexity of human behavior, including your own.
character motivation Possible Motives
What prompted the man to steal a large sum of
money? A character’s motivation—the reasons
behind his or her actions—can affect your
perception of that character. For instance, the
man might steal money to feed his family or
to achieve a lifelong dream of wealth. How do
these reasons affect your opinion of him?
Sometimes a character’s motivation is stated Character
directly in a story. Usually, though, you need to
look for clues and details to try to figure out the
motivation. As you read, pay attention to Resulting Action

• the narrator’s direct comments about a

character’s motivation
• the character’s actions, thoughts, and values
• your own insights into human behavior
static and dynamic characters
In addition to knowing why a character acts a certain way, it is important to
analyze how a character changes as a result of the events in a story. A character
might grow emotionally, learn a lesson, or alter his or her behavior. Characters
who change and grow as the plot develops are dynamic characters. In contrast,
characters who remain the same are static characters.

strategies for analyzing character change

First examine the change: Then analyze the meaning:

• Compare how a character was at the • What lesson does the character learn,
beginning of the story with how he or or what insight does he or she gain?
she is at the end.

• Is the change external, such as in • Does the change show personal

appearance or circumstance? Is it an growth, or does it lead to the
internal change of attitude or belief? character’s downfall?

• What factors, events, or characters • Would the character be motivated to

contributed to or caused the change? change without the contributing factors?

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 Literary Analysis Workshop

model 1: character motivation

These two excerpts come from a story about a girl’s initiation into a
sorority. Why does Millicent want to join the exclusive club?

from
initiation Short story by Sylvia Plath

What girl would not want to be one of the elect, no matter if it did mean
five days of initiation before and after school, ending in the climax of Rat Close Read
Court on Friday night when they made the new girls members? Even Tracy 1. The boxed text reveals
had been wistful when she heard that Millicent had been one of the five girls to how difficult it is to
5 receive an invitation. get into the sorority.
“It won’t be any different with us, Tracy,” Millicent had told her. “We’ll Find another place that
still go around together like we always have, and next year you’ll surely get in.” explains Millicent’s more
“I know, but even so,” Tracy had said quietly, “you’ll change, whether you personal reason for
wanting to belong.
think you will or not. Nothing ever stays the same.”
10 And nothing does, Millicent had thought. How horrible it would be if one 2. What does Millicent’s
never changed . . . if she were condemned to be the plain, shy Millicent of a desire to join the sorority
few years back for the rest of her life. reveal about her?

model 2: character change

Now read to see how Millicent changes by the end of the story.

As part of her initiation, Millicent has had to ask strangers on a bus what they
had for breakfast. One man answered cheerfully, “Heather birds’ eyebrows on
toast.” His unusual response helped Millicent put the experience in perspective.
Close Read
Outside, the sparrows were still chirping, and as she lay in bed Millicent
visualized them, pale gray-brown birds in a flock, one like the other, all 1. How has Millicent
exactly alike. changed since the
beginning of the story?
And then, for some reason, Millicent thought of the heather birds. Swooping
Explain whether her
5 carefree over the moors, they would go singing and crying out across the great
change is external or
spaces of air, dipping and darting, strong and proud in their freedom and their
internal.
sometime loneliness. It was then that she made her decision.
2. What insight does
Seated now on the woodpile in Betsy Johnson’s cellar, Millicent knew that
Millicent gain? Cite
she had come triumphant through the trial of fire, the searing period of the ego
details to support your
10 which could end in two kinds of victory for her. The easiest of which would be
answer.
her coronation as a princess, labeling her conclusively as one of the select flock.
The other victory would be much harder, but she knew that it was what she
wanted. It was not that she was being noble or anything. It was just that she
had learned there were other ways of getting into the great hall, blazing with
15 lights, of people and of life.

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 Part 3: Analyze the Literature
The following excerpts are from a story set on a farm in Ireland. Two
characters, husband and wife, are bickering over something that they
have clearly argued about many times before. As you read, analyze
the characters’ traits, motivations, and changes.

Brig d
from

Short story by Mary Lavin

“I see there’s no use in talking about it,” said the woman. “All I can say is Close Read
God help the girls, with you, their own father, putting a drag on them so that
1. What do you learn about
no man will have anything to do with them after hearing about Brigid.” the wife’s personality
“What do you mean by that? This is something new. I thought it was from the things she says
5 only the bit of bread and tea she got that you grudged the poor thing. This is to her husband? Cite
something new. What is this?” specific statements to
“You oughtn’t to need to be told, a man like you that saw the world, a man support your answer.
that traveled like you did, a man that was in England and London.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He took up his hat and felt it to
10 see if the side he had placed near the fire was dry. He turned the other side
toward the fire. “What are you trying to say?” he said. “Speak plain!”
“Is any man going to marry a girl when he hears her aunt is a poor half- 2. The boxed sentence
witted creature, soft in the head, and living in a poke of a hut, doing nothing gives one reason why the
all day but sitting looking into the fire?” wife wants to put Brigid
15 “What has that got to do with anybody but the poor creature herself? Isn’t in a “home.” What other
it her own trouble?” motivation is revealed in
“Men don’t like marrying into a family that has the like of her in it.” this excerpt?
“Is that so? I didn’t notice that you were put off marrying me, and you
knew all about poor Brigid. You used to bring her bunches of primroses. And
20 one day I remember you pulling the flowers off your hat and giving them to
her when she started crying over nothing. You used to say she was a harmless
poor thing. You used to say you’d look after her.”
“And didn’t I? Nobody can say I didn’t look after her. Didn’t I do my best
to have her taken into a home, where she’d get the proper care? You can’t deny
25 that.”
“I’m not denying it. You never gave me peace or ease since the day we were 3. Reread lines 18–22
married. But I wouldn’t give in. I wouldn’t give in then, and I won’t give in and 26–29. What do
now, either. I won’t let it be said that I had a hand or part in letting my own you learn about the
husband’s traits from
sister be put away.”
the way he responds
30 “But it’s for her own good.”
to his wife?

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 Literary Analysis Workshop

Later in the story, a sudden tragedy prompts the wife to reflect on her
relationship with her husband and their argument over Brigid’s care.

After their argument, the husband goes to visit Brigid at her tiny cottage
within walking distance of the house. When he doesn’t return by dark, his
wife gets worried and goes to look for him. She finds his body at the cottage,
his head badly burned by the hearth fire where he had fallen, while Brigid sits
uncomprehending nearby.

I t was dark at the pump, but she could hear people running the way she
had pointed. Then when they had reached the cottage, there was no more
running, but great talking and shouting. She sat down at the side of the pump,
but there was a smell off her hands and desperately she bent forward and began to
5 wash them under the pump, but when she saw there was hair stuck to her fingers
she wanted to scream again, but there was a great pain gathering in her heart, not
yet the pain of loss, but the pain of having failed; failed in some terrible way. Close Read
I failed him always, she thought, from the very start. I never loved him like 1. Reread the boxed text.
he loved me; not even then, long ago, the time I took the flowers off my hat. It What motivated the
10 wasn’t for Brigid, like he thought. I was only making myself out to be what he wife to be kind to Brigid
imagined I was. I didn’t know enough about loving to change myself for him. initially?
I didn’t even know enough about it to keep him loving me. He had to give it
all to Brigid in the end.
He gave it all to Brigid; to a poor daft thing that didn’t know enough to
15 pull him back from the fire or call someone when he fell down in a stroke. If it
was anyone else was with him, he might have had a chance. 2. How does the wife
Oh, how had it happened? How could love be wasted and go to loss like change during the story?
that? . . . Explain the lesson she
Suddenly she thought of the heavy feet of the neighbors tramping the has learned by the end.
20 boards of the cottage up in the fields behind her, and rising up, she ran back
up the boreen.1
“Here’s the poor woman now,” someone said, as she thrust past the crowd 3. Do you think the wife
around the door. would have changed had
They began to make a way for her to where, on the settle bed, they had her husband not died?
25 laid her husband. But instead she parted a way through the people and went Support your opinion
toward the door of the room off the kitchen. with evidence.
“It’s Brigid I’m thinking about,” she said. “Where is she?”
“Something will have to be done about her now all right,” someone said.
“It will,” she said, decisively, and her voice was as true as a bell.
30 She had reached the door of the room.
“That’s why I came back,” she said, looking around her defiantly. “She’ll
need proper minding now. To think she hadn’t the strength to run for help or 4. “Brigid” is the title of this
pull him back a bit from the fire.” She opened a door. story, yet Brigid herself
Sitting on the side of the bed, all alone, she saw Brigid. never speaks. Is she a
35 “Get your hat and coat, Brigid,” she said. “You’re coming with me.” flat or round character?
Support your answer.
1. boreen: a narrow country lane.

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