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Characters and Their

Descriptions

Mrs. Weddle

7th Grade Reading

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A Quick Overview

A character is the person, animal,

creature, etc. in story, movie, novel,

play, etc. What is an example?Characters can be:

Protagonist or antagonist

Major or secondary

Dynamic or static

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Main vs. Secondary

The main characters are anycharacters that are directly

involved in the conflict. Theyare the ones that have forcesworking against them and that

have a problem to solve.

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Main Vs. Secondary

The secondary characters areany that are placed in the

story to spice it up but arenot needed to tell the story.

What is a good example of asecondary character?

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Protagonist Vs. Antagonist

The Protagonist is the leadingcharacter, also known as the

hero/heroine in the story. Thischaracter is acted against bythe antagonist

In your own words, what is theprotagonist?

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Protagonist Vs. Antagonist

The Antagonist is the characterthat is standing in the way of

the protagonist. They aresometimes seen as the badguy, but they are not

necessarily bad.What is an example of an

antagonist that is not bad?

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Dynamic Vs. Static

A Dynamic character is onethat changes in the story. The

change usually comes duringthe climax.

Who has changed so far in the

stories we have read?

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Dynamic Vs. Static

Static characters are ones thatdo not change throughout the

story.

Good way to remember static

characters: when a tv stationhas static, it never changes orgoes away.

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Methods of CharacterizationThere are several ways we can learn

about a character in a story:What they think

What they doWhat the say

How the narrator describes them

How they feel

What they look like

What other characters say about them

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Motivation of Characters

Characters react certainways in the story based on

what is going on in the storyand who they are ascharacters. Both major andminor characters have

motivations and its up to thereader to decide on thosemotivations.

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ExamplesThought:I stared at the umbrella. I wanted to open it,

twirl it around by its silver handle; I wanted todangle it from my wrist on the way to schoollike the way the other girls did. I wonderedwhat Miss Crosman would say if I offered tobring it to Eugenie at school tomorrow. From:The White Umbrella by Gish Jen

What does this passage reveal about thecharacter?

What was her motivation for wanting to wear iton her wrist like the other girls?

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ExamplesActions:Mr. Bueller shuffled through the papers

on his desk. He smiled and hummed as

he sat down to work. He remembered hiscollege years when he dated a girlfriendin borrowed cars. She thought he wasrich because each time he picked her up

he had a different car. It was fun until hespent all his money on her and had towrite home to his parents because hewas broke.

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Examples

Words:

The woman said, Um-hum! You

thought I was going to say but, didntyou? You thought I was going to say,but I didnt snatch peoples

pocketbooks. Well, I wasnt going tosay that. Pause. Silence. I have

done things too, which I would not tellyou son-neither tell God, if he didntalready know.

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Examples

Narrator Descriptions:

He was eighteen and one newspaper

article about him said that he couldbe in the major leagues by the time hewas nineteen. Thats how good hewas. Naturally, the baseball coachloved him. That was the thing about

Mack, the people who liked himusually liked him because he was astar.

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Examples

Mack had an attitude problem.He thought he could just show upand everybody was supposed to

fall down and go crazy. He waspretty smart, too, but he made thisbig show of not caring aboutgrades.From Kitty and Mack: A Love Story by

Walter Dean Myers

What motivated Mack to not care

about his grades?

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Examples

Feelings

Victor was too weak from failure

to join the class. He stared at theboard and wished he had taken

Spanish, not French. Better yet,

he wished he could start his life

over. He had never been soembarrassed.

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Examples

Looks

He looked as if he was fourteen

or fifteen, frail and willow-wild, intennis shoes and blue jeans.

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Examples

What Other Characters SayI glanced back at Mary Lou Welever

depositing her lunch pail on a shelf in

the back of the room and said, Notany more you aint.

Miss Daisy Crocket, yellow andbuckeyed, glared down at me from

the middle of the room with a look thatsaid, Sooooooooo, its you, CassieLogan.

From Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry byMildred Taylor