Lesson Title: Introduction to Characterization

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Lesson Title Introduction to Characterization
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Objectives

• The student will be able to
• Analyze the methods authors use to develop and
  reveal character.
• Determine character traits from indirect
  characterization.

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Anticipatory Set

• List some characters that you have encountered in
  fiction whose traits reminded you of real people
  that you know.

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Character Revealing Human Nature

• Creating characterstelling what human beings are
  likeis the whole point of writing stories. It
  is interesting because it tells about people and
  how we behave.

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Characters

• Now you have named some characters that you have
  encountered in fiction whose traits reminded you
  of real people that you know. How do writers
  create their characters?

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Characterization

• Characterization is the process of revealing the
  personality of a character in a story.

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2 Categories of Characterization

• Indirect Characterization
• Direct Characterization

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Indirect Characterization

• With this type of characterization, character is
  revealed by
• Characters Speech
• a. first-person narration speak directly to
  reader (I)
• b. dialogue conversation between characters.
• c. dramatic monologue type of poem, speaker
  addresses one or more silent listeners.
• d. soliloquy usually done in a play it is a
  self-revealing speech

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Direct Characterization

• With this type, the author tells the reader
  directly what a character is like or what a
  persons motives are.

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Thank You Mam by Langston Hughes
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Langston Hughes1902-1967

• Hughes traveled all over the world, but he is
  chiefly associated with Harlem, in New York City,
  where he participated in the great flowering of
  African-American art and writing known as the
  Harlem Renaissance. His most creative work was
  done at his typewriter near a third-floor
  rear-apartment window overlooking a Harlem
  backyard. He wrote stories, but is best known as
  a poet.
• Hughes preferred to let ordinary people speak for
  themselves. His poems are often written in
  dialect, and many include slanghis speakers say
  what is on their minds, and they say it in the
  language they use every day.

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• This story is about a boy who tries to steal from
  someone to get what he wants and ends up learning
  something in the process.

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• Why are people so tempted to steal? Why can some
  resist the urge, while others give into the
  temptation even while knowing that they will
  probably be caught and punished?

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SummarySummarize the plot of Thank You Mam

• How do we meet Roger and Mrs. Jones?
• What does Mrs. Jones do to Roger?

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• Why did she share her supper with him after he
  tried to rob her?
• What happens to Roger at the end of the end of
  the story?

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• Roger was right in the middle of trying to find a
  way to say thank you to Mrs. Jones when she
  closed the door in his face. What does this tell
  you about her personality?

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Characterization

• Characterization is how a writer gives insight
  into a characters personality. Judging from the
  dialogue of the story, the setting, and your
  inferences how would you describe the
  personalities of
• Roger
• Mrs. Jones

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• Could you do the same thing as Mrs. Jones if
  someone stole something from you? Explain.

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• Characters in stories show different aspects of
  human nature. Do you know of anyone like Mrs.
  Jones???