Class Class 55

EWRT 2 A Game of Thrones

AGENDAAGENDACharacterization

DirectIndirect

Group DiscussionEight Methods of

CharacterizationRhetorical Strategy:

Examples and explanationIn-class Writing

CharacterCharacterizatiizationonDirect or Indirect?

Two Types of Two Types of CharacterizationCharacterization

Direct Characterization

The writer makes direct statements about a character’s personality and tells what the character is like.

Think adjectives.

Indirect Characterization

the writer reveals information about a character and his/her personality through that character’s thoughts, words, and actions, along with how other characters respond to that character, including what they think and say about him/her.

Think verbs.

Direct Characterization

Gary is a nice and caring person.

Gary can sometimes be very mean or rude.

Indirect Characterization Gary watched his little

brother for two hours while their mother was ill, taking care of his every need. He did this without being asked and he did not ask for anything in return.

“The next thing I know, Gary was tearing up my rose garden,” said Beatrice his elderly grandmother as she gave her statement to the police. She was still badly shaken after the attack.

Group DiscussionGroup DiscussionGet into groupsAnswer the following questions (in the best case scenario, with textual evidence).

Determine if the evidence is direct or indirect

Robert BaratheonCersei LannisterJoffrey BaratheonTyrion LannisterJaime Lannister

Petyr BaelishVarysGrand Maester PycelleFamily Clegane

Jon Snow

Maester Aemon

Jeor Mormont

Samwell Tarley

Bran Stark Sansa Stark Arya Stark Rob Stark Theon Greyjoy

• Khal Drogo• Daenerys Targaryen• Viserys Targaryen• Jorah Mormont

• Eddard Stark • Catelyn Stark • Maester Luwin• Citizens of Westeros:

Prostitutes• House Stark: Septa

Mordane/Old Nan

How does ancestry shape your character? Is the character at odds with family traditions?

Who are character’s closest family members: spouse, children, parents, grandparents, siblings.

What motivates your character? Money? Love? Truth? Power? Justice?

What does your character want more than anything else in the world?

What other characters or events are interfering with your character’s goals? What obstacles are in the way? What is your character’s single greatest fear? How did your character acquire his or her fears?

What are your character’s flaws and weaknesses?

Do the character’s fears and flaws prevent him or her from reaching a goal or goals?

Eight ways to look at a character in a story

1. Physical Description1. Physical Description

Physical description is the most common way of describing a character.

It identifies physical attributes of the character.height, skin, hair and eye color, short/tall,

skinny/fat, glasses, nose size and shape, disability, difference

gestures and movements: walking, standing, moving, wrinkling brow

2. Name 2. Name AnalysisAnalysis

To analyze a character’s name, look more closely at its meaning, allusion, or suggestion. Not all characters have a name with

significance to the story. Often though, author’s carefully choose a character’s name to represent a trait or quality about the character or the story.

STARK: Lords of Winterfell The English/German surname Stark means

“strong, brave.” Stark is also a common word in the English

language meaning “harsh, grim or desolate; extremely simple or severe; bluntly or sternly plain.” The word  comes from the Middle/Old English stearc (stiff, firm). It is similar to the German stark and the Old Norse sterkr (both meaning strong).

Interestingly enough, stark also means, in an archaic sense, “strong, powerful, massive, robust.”

http://thekingskeep.wordpress.com/2011/05/02/whats-in-a-name-stark-edition-2/

This method of characterization is the reader’s description of the character’s attitude and behavior.

The character’s attitude is how the character appears to feel about what is happening to him or her in the story. Sometimes we read attitude in behavior rather than words.

4. Dialogue4. DialogueDialogue refers to characters’ wordsDialogue includes the characters diction

(word choice) and syntax (word arrangement).

It also includes the tone of the character when he or she speaks.Is the character serious? Sarcastic? Shy?

Obnoxious? Ignorant?these qualities can be conveyed through the

characters dialogue.

5. Thoughts5. Thoughts The thoughts of a character can only be

analyzed if we are inside the head of the character.

This means that you can only include an analysis of a character’s thoughts if you are told what the character is thinking.

6. Reactions of Others6. Reactions of OthersWhen analyzing the reactions of

others, you are looking closely at how other characters in the story react to or treat the character that you are characterizing.

Reactions include verbal responses and physical or emotional treatment.

Character reactions can tell you if the character you are analyzing is liked or disliked, popular, honest, trustworthy and so on.

Example of Reactions of Example of Reactions of Others:Others:

7. Action or Incident7. Action or Incident Characters can be analyzed by

looking at an action or incident and how it affected them or how they reacted to it.

What action did the character take when confronted with a certain situation?

Is there and incident in the character’s past that has shaped him or her as a character?

The action or incident determines the way the character develops as the story goes on.

8. Physical/Emotional Setting:8. Physical/Emotional Setting:The setting of a story affects the

characters’ development as well as the plot.

The physical setting of a story is where the story is actually taking place and can affect the way a character develops.

The emotional setting of a story is the series of emotions that the character deals with throughout the story.

OK. So now what?OK. So now what?

I am glad you asked!

Claiming, Claiming, EXEMPLIFYING, AND EXEMPLIFYING, AND EXPLAININGEXPLAINING

Paragraph Practice

ClaimCompose a topic sentence in which you describe how the author uses diction, imagery, details, language, and/or syntax to create your character. Explain (Context)Compose multiple sentences in which you give background information about where you found your textual evidence. What’s going on in the novel in the section you chose your passage from?

You’ll want to make this sentence work seamlessly with your textual evidence. Think about using a colon at the end of your background info to introduce the quote.

ExemplifyInsert your textual evidence: “…” (240).

Make sure to punctuate your quoted textual evidence properly, including quotation marks and the page number in parenthesis.

Explain/Analyze (Meaning)Compose several sentences in which you explain how the

evidence helps create the character (or character trait) you identified in the topic sentence.

The more fully you can explain how the textual evidence proves your topic sentence, the better.

Study the words for the test next Tuesday!

HomeworkHomeworkRead A Game of Thrones through

500 Post # 8 In-class writing:

Paragraph practice

Post #9 Find one example for each of the eight methods of characterization.

Study Vocabulary: Test next Tuesday