Building Your Portfolio Writer

Building Your Portfolio

Writer’s Workshop

Expository Writing: Analyzing a Character

Have you ever thought, “I don’t want this book (or movie) to end” because you cared about a character so much? Have you ever gotten hooked on a series of books because you wanted to keep following the adventures of a character you liked? Some fictional characters seem so real that we feel we know them. In this workshop, you’ll write an essay in which you analyze a fictional character who has made an impression on you.

Write an essay in which you analyze a character in a novel, short story, television show, or movie.

Your teacher and classmates, the members of a book club, or the readers of a school or local newspaper. (You choose.)

Look back at your Writer’s Notebook entries for this collection. Is there a character in your notes you want to analyze? If not, get together with classmates, and brainstorm a long list of unforgettable or favorite characters from books, stories, comic books, movies, or TV shows. Pick a character who really interests you—who seems as real as a flesh-and-blood person.

2. Look Closely at the Character

To analyze something means to break it down into parts in order to understand how it works.

Before you begin your character analysis, reread the Elements of Literature essay "Character: Living Many Lives" in Collection Two.

• How the character behaves or acts. This is very important. Think about what motivates your character—that is, why does the character behave the way he or she does? What does your character want? What does he or she do to get it? How does the character change in the story? What has the character learned or discovered by the end of the story?

• What the character says. Look for key speeches that reveal the character’s wants or fears or conflicts.

• How other people in the story respond to the character. This is important. It tells you whether the character is well liked or hated, if people avoid him or her, and so on.

• What the writer tells us directly about the character. Look for direct statements, such as “Harold was mean.” Not all writers tell us directly what a character is like. Many let us figure it out for ourselves, which is much more fun.

• Finally, think about an important question: Is your character believable? Does he or she behave the way real people behave? Is your character a mixture of good and bad traits, the way most people are? Is he or she instead only one-dimensional—all good or all bad?

Put these details in a chart like the one below. (Don’t worry about filling in every column; some won’t apply.)

A Box of Character Traits
You may want to use some of these words to describe your character:

calm	impatient
clever	intelligent
conceited	kind
courageous	lazy
cruel	loyal
curious	nervous
dishonest	patient
friendly	proud
helpful	sincere
honest	sinister
humorous	timid

Once you have filled out your profile, look over your notes, and decide which aspect of your character interests you. Write down some statements that could serve as your main idea.

This character is a believable teenager who behaves exactly the way my friends and I behave.

Once you are satisfied with your main idea, you can begin to gather details to elaborate and support it. Your chart should help you here. You should be able to cite at least three details from the story that support your main idea.

Your introduction should include a thesis statement that sums up what you will discuss in your essay.

Thesis Statement

In Roald Dahl’s “The Landlady,” the main character, Billy Weaver, is so polite and unquestioning and really dim that he is not like a real-life person.

Keep your chart and rough outline in front of you as you begin to write. Remember to focus on the character, not the plot. If you need to summarize the plot for an audience unfamiliar with the work, keep your plot summary brief.

Identify character and work (title, author). Include a sentence that introduces the essay’s main idea.

Body

Edgar Allan Poe had a very hard life, and maybe that’s why he wrote so many dark stories.             Attention-grabbing opener.
In the first paragraph of Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator tells
someone (a psychiatrist?) that he will “calmly” tell his whole story to prove that he                            Identifies character, story,
is not insane. Poe reveals what the narrator is really like just by letting us hear how                             and writer.
he speaks. He tries to prove that he is not insane, but then he says the idea of
murder “haunted me day and night.” This leads me to believe that the idea to murder                         Thesis statement.
the old man was conceived by the narrator’s insanity itself.

When the story begins, the narrator has killed the old man he has been Brief plot summary.
living with, an old man with a strange eye. The murder is motivated by
the old man’s eye. At first, the narrator is very annoyed by the eye,
and then it drives him to murder.

First, I think the narrator was already insane before the murder                                                         First detail supporting
because a little thing like an eye couldn’t possibly lead him to murder                                                 thesis statement.
an old man he says he loved: “I loved the old man. He had never                                                     Quotation from story to
wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no                                                     elaborate.
desire. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this!” This makes no sense.

Second, the narrator becomes increasingly nervous and                                                                 Second detail supporting
strange after the officers come to his door. Then, he begins                                                             thesis statement.
to hear the beating of the old man’s heart. It isn’t really
there, but in his mind it is.

Finally, by the end of his story, the narrator can’t take it                                                                 Third detail supporting
anymore. He breaks down completely, shows the officers                                                             thesis statement.
the body, and yells, “It is the beating of his hideous heart!”
He has given himself away.

This story is very dark and eerie, like all of Poe’s work. I enjoyed Summation of
reading “The Tell-Tale Heart.” It’s classic Poe. The use of an insane main idea.
narrator is also classic Poe.

—Taylor R.
Austin, Texas

Make copies of your essay, and exchange papers with two or three classmates. Before you read your partners’ essays, discuss the Evaluation Criteria below. Afterward, give your partners feedback. Be sure to point out passages in each essay that are unclear. Be sure also to tell the writer what you liked about the essay.

Evaluation Criteria

5. concludes by summarizing or restating the main idea

2. Self-Evaluation

Read your essay carefully. You may find it helpful to read it aloud into a tape recorder and listen to the results with a critical ear. Can you improve it by combining sentences or eliminating repetition? Can you do a better job of tying your ideas together? You may need to add some subordinating conjunctions (such as after, because, though, and whenever) and transitional words (such as first, next, and finally) to connect your ideas more logically.

Make a copy of your essay, and proofread it with a partner. As your partner reads aloud, read along silently. Stop when you come to an error in grammar, spelling, or punctuation, and correct it.

• Some Internet sites welcome reviews and essays. Check with your teacher before submitting your work on-line.
• Start a literary criticism (lit crit) club to print and discuss your essays.

Character profile of ________________
Method of characterization	Details in story
Appearance
Actions
Words spoken by character
Thoughts
Other characters’ responses
Writer’s direct comments
Is character believable? Why or why not?