Characterization is shown through indirect and direct stories. Indirect is when the author does not go straight out and tell the reader characteristics, but direct is a five letter acronym known as S.T.E.A.L. These individual letters stand for say, think, effect, actions, and look. Say stands for what the character says throughout the story, think is what the character imagines or says in his or her mind that only the reader and the narrator know, effect stands for what effect the characters' actions play with others within the story, actions stands for what the character physically does within the story, and look is what the characters physical features are and how they develop characterization. Sandra Cisneros develops great characterization throughout both …show more content…
Immediately, the characterization traits that are expected to arise include looks, actions, and the effect on others. There is no dialogue in this story and it takes place in third person which is why say and think would be hard to come by. Cisneros uses characterization in “Salvador Late or Early” through the physical looks of Salvador mostly. The reason why she does this is to develop great imagery in the reader’s mind of what characteristics he contains. In the story, she mentions, “… Salvador of the crooked hair and crooked teeth” (“Salvador Late or Early” 1). This is shown to portray that Salvador is poor because he can’t afford to get a haircut or maybe braces for his crooked teeth. Another example, in the story was when Cisneros mentioned, “Salvador inside that wrinkled shirt, inside the throat that must clear itself and apologize every time it speaks, inside that forty-five pound body of boy with its geography of scars” (“Salvador Late or Early” 1). This obviously shows that Salvador is going through a hard time as we can see through the wrinkled shirt and the scars. This is a way
Unlike character, characterization can be defined as methods an author uses to create the characters. Two examples an author can use are direct characterization where a character is directly described by the author, and indirect characterization where the character is revealed by their actions, reactions of other characters, thought, and speech. There are a few scenes in the play where the author directly describes a character. One example of major direct characterization comes from scene one in which Stanley is first introduced and described. Tennessee Williams writes, “Branching out from this complete and satisfying center are all the auxiliary channels of his life, such as his heartiness with men, his appreciation of rough humor, his love of good drink and food and games, his car, his radio, everything that is his emblem of the gaudy seed-bearer.” (Williams 84). His description of Stanley gives the reader a picture of how he acts and how he will act throughout the rest of the story. Much of the indirect characterization of the play can also be centered around the heated topic of sensuality. Blanche is an important character whose characterization heavily relies on her actions related to sensuality, and other’s reactions to her actions. “Blanche waltzes to the music with romantic gestures. Mitch is delighted and moves in awkward imitation like a dancing bear.” (Williams 97). This quote shows the relationship between Blanche and Mitch, a potential love interest, after she
Poverty and stress take away the pleasures of childhood from the children unfortunate to be born into such families. In Salvador Late or Early, a short story by Sandra Cisneros, tells us about the stressful lifestyle of an underprivileged boy named Salvador. Salvador The author believes Salvador is an interesting character because he’s a boy with responsibilities of an adult, he is a solitary and misunderstood kid at school, and because throughout all the pain and suffering he’s been through, he remains unbroken.
Indirect and direct characterization are both two techniques in literature that can describe a character in a novel. Indirect characterization is when the author of a novel does not directly describe a character, but leaves clues through their body language or what they speak to inform us what kind of character they are. Direct characterization is when the writer is direct, and right to the point about how a character acts, and looks like. An example of indirect characterization in the novel, Of Mice and Men is when Lennie speaks. The author, John Steinbeck does not establish that Lennie is slow, however, from his speech, the readers can most likely infer that he is. “Give ‘um to me George. I’ll take ‘um back. I didn’t mean no harm, George.
In “Salvador Late or Early”, it is a third-person point of view. In the short-story, it provides a visual of Salvador as a scrawny, ugly boy. However, the narrator describes him as not what meets the eye; he is a tough young boy who is responsible and mature. This is a perfect example of why it is wrong to make assumptions of people. If the point of view was different, and one was knowledgeable of the fact that Salvador is worth more than what he seems, then all he would be is a boy with “eyes the color of a caterpillar” and “of the crooked hair and crooked teeth,” (Paragraph 1). The point of view from which the story is told evidently affects the thematic
Indirect characterization is a literary device in which the author reveals information about the character indirectly through his/her thoughts, words, actions, and/or relationships with others. In The Secret Life of Bees,Sue Monk Kidd uses indirect characterization to reveal information about Lily Owens. Through Lily’s actions, thoughts, and words, the reader sees that she is a loyal friend, a young girl with independent thoughts, and a clever and intelligent person.
The use of characterization is a crucial part of the story. The first use of characterization
Characterization is a method a writer uses to reveal the personality of a character by what they do or says and what other says about them. Throughout the novel, we see Dracula, a creature of the night perform many evil deeds such as biting victims like Lucy and Maria, and control over violent creatures in nature. By these actions, it reveals that Dracula is a evil monster, an emotionless killer and very mysterious. On the other hand, VanHelsing actions such as trying to save Lucy from Dracula, deep emotional care towards friends like Mina when she is losing hope after her encounter with Dracula also reveals personality traits. By these actions, Vanhelsing is seen to be caring and have a strong belief in religion having powers. This shows how Vanhelsing is the most threating towards Dracula because both of their personalities are the complete opposite. As Vanhelsing uses religious items due to their powers over Dracula, Dracula perverts the way of Christianity and only causes trouble for other people. This is how characterization of both Dracula and Vanhelsing shows the professor is the largest threat to
Most authors when writing like to provide clues about the character for the reader to fill in the blanks called a direct characterization some authors tell the reader exactly what the character's personality is leaving nothing to the imagination which is called direct characterization some authors use both indirect and direct characterization Jack Finney who wrote contents of the Dead Man's Pocket uses direct characterization as well as a direct characterization in Contents of a Dead Man's Pocket Jack Finney uses direct characterization at the beginning of the story Finney writes he was a tall lean dark-haired young man a pullover sweater who looks as though he had played not football probably but basketball in college in other words finny
Indirect characterization is when you learn a character's attributes through speech and interactions; “Two years later, Ben would be sworn in himself, but watching his big brother now was the next best thing”(Asimov,226). Based on the quote, we learn that Ben looks up to his big brother, without the author telling us directly. In the short story “I Am..Am I”, Taylor also uses indirect characterization; “‘I thought you were having dinner with your wife.’ For once, she almost added”(Taylor,29). Through the conversation between Chambers and King, the author has portrayed King as an unthoughtful husband. Both of the authors chose to write this way to show the characters motivations and make the reader have empathy for the
In the Bedford Introduction to Literature, Characterization is defined as "... the process by which a writer makes that character seem real to the reader"(2126). In order to do this a writer has multiple tools at their disposal that add to the depth of a character and simplify roles in a story. This includes the use of Protagonists and Antagonists, static and dynamic characters, showing and telling, and motivated and plausible action, as well as many others. The short story "Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield is no exception to this and displays the main character of Miss Brill as the protagonist, who is confronted with the reality of her existence.
In class we had to read a book called “Revulsion: Thomas Bernhard in San Salvador” by Horacio Castellano Moya written in 1997. This book consists of one main character Vega who is an art history professor that comes back to El Salvador to attend his mother’s funereal in exchange for his fair share of her will she left behind for him and his brother. While being in El Salvador for fifteen days Vega meets up with up with his so called friend named Moya at bar called La Lumbre. They decided to meet up in the evening in regards to discusses Vega’s anger towards El Salvador. However, Vega ended up going into a total rant about how much he despites the violence, political corruption, and the education given in El Salvador. Leading up to the main
Authors use characterization to develop the actions of the characters. Like Mary’s actions in ‘The Lamb to the Slaughter’ by using different kinds of literature devices. Roald Dahl in "The Lamb to the Slaughter" uses characterization, imagery, and irony to develop the character of Mary so that the reader can understand what has occurred during the murder.
Characterization refers to the techniques a writer uses to develop characters in the story. In the story ‘A Rose for Emily’, William Faulkner uses characterization to reveal the character of Miss Emily Grierson, the main role. Faulkner’s use of language foreshadows and builds up to the climax of the story. He expresses the content of her character through physical descriptions, through her act, words, and feeling, through the narrator’s direct comments about the character’s nature, and through the actions, words and feelings of the other characters. Faulkner also uses the characterization to examine the theme of the story. His
Characterization is how the characters in the text are viewed and developed as the text expands. For this, I will consider the character, Nyla (purple). Nyla is an innocent girl with dull eyes and voice. Her innocence is revealed as tells of her first time sex encounter and also in her lack of understanding of her mum and sister’s relationship. Her confession of sex to an older man is like that of a young misled child. She is ignorant of the world and its dangers. She just completed high school and is very excited, happy to lose her virginity to childhood sweetheart. Reality drowns on her when she finds out she is pregnant and needed to abort. Her innocence gives her away when she tries to
Characterization is a literary element used by the author to present qualities of characters in a literary piece, the purpose of characterization is to make characters credible and make them suitable for the role they play in the work. Authors present various characters possessing dissimilar qualities, to emphasize different aspects of the work. In the novel “The Scarlet Letter”, the author Nathaneil Hawthorn’s depiction of the two male characters, Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth, emphasizes the moral problems of the seventeenth century puritan society. Hence, their different characters contribute vitally to the plot of the novel.