unit Word Portraits 2 character development • In Fiction • In Nonfiction • In Poetry • In Drama • In Media 173 VA_L10PE-u02-uo.indd 173 3/28/11 12:14:33 PM unit Share What You Know 2 What makes a CHARACTER live? We can all remember reading about someone—real or fictitious— who seemed to come to life on the page. We can imagine what that character might say or do and can probably describe what he or she looks like. We can even imagine meeting that person and having a conversation. Find It ACTIVITY With a group of classmates, think of several memorable Online! characters from books and movies. Describe each one, including details about appearance and personality. Then consider the Go to thinkcentral.com for the interactive following questions: version of this unit. • Why does this character stand out in your memory? • How do other people feel about this character? • What do you know about how this person thinks and acts? 174 VA_L10PE-u02-uo.indd 174 3/28/11 12:14:14 PM Virginia Standards of Learning Preview Unit Goals text • Analyze character traits and motivation analysis • Analyze the methods writers use to develop complex characters • Analyze how characters advance the plot of a story • Analyze characters’ moral dilemmas reading • Cite evidence to make inferences and generalizations • Identify central ideas and supporting details • Identify an author’s perspective writing and • Write a narrative (short story) language • Understand and use varied sentence types • Use precise verbs and modifiers vocabulary • Determine figurative and connotative meanings of words • Use reference materials to determine or clarify a word’s etymology or meaning academic • dynamic • seek vocabulary • individual • undergo • motive media • Identify and analyze characterization and stereotypes in film literacy • Produce a video narrative dvd-rom Media from Finding Forrester Media Literacy: Characterization in Movies Film Clip on Media dvd-rom Study Smart You’re aware of the four basic methods in which characters are developed in fiction. In movies, characters are developed in similar ways but through camera techniques that show not only characters’ physical appearance and actions but convey their emotions. In addition, actors use an array of performance Creating Characters on Film techniques to add more dimension to characters. What makes a character what directors do what actors do Film Techniques Performance Techniques BELIEVABLE? Directors position characters within the “frame” of a screen or image, Actors rely on performance techniques to controlling the range of distance from the characters to viewers. This reveal characters’ basic traits and to signal Virginia Standards Think of a TV or movie character who captivated you. What was it draws viewers’ attention to characters’ behavior and emotions. feelings or thoughts. of Learning about the actor’s performance that convinced you of the character’s 10.1 The student will participate believability? In this lesson, you’ll view a movie scene that focuses on in, collaborate in, and report Strategies for Viewing Strategies for Viewing on small-group learning three characters. As you get a sense of each one, you’ll see how film Explore the ways filmmakers portray • Put yourself at the scene through your awareness of camera placement. • Note an actor’s use of body language. activities. 10.2d Identify the tools and techniques used to achieve the and performance techniques can influence your perceptions. The camera often gets closer as the tension in a scene increases. Ask Viewers can make judgments based on intended focus. yourself: What character is drawing my attention? With whom do I a character’s appearance and actions Background sympathize? and make inferences about a character’s • Watch for close-ups, which reveal actors’ facial expressions. Usually, thoughts and feelings. Finding Friendship In the movie Finding Forrester, the main the higher the emotional level of a scene, the more a director is likely • Watch facial expressions. Look into character is Jamal Wallace, who transfers from a high school to use close-ups. characters’ eyes, as close-ups permit, in his tough urban neighborhood to a preparatory school • Observe camera movements. Panning is when the camera scans a to read emotional signals. How do the with tough academic standards. Placed there on a basketball location from one side to the other. eyes change to reveal suspicion? fear? characters in a riveting scene from Finding scholarship, Jamal is regarded as a star in the making. Few are wonder? aware that he is also an exceptional writer. The movie focuses • Listen to how an actor speaks the on Jamal’s unlikely friendship with a reclusive neighbor, William dialogue, which can reveal a character’s Forrester, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who has begun personality or mood. The way an actor speaks and the words he or she says may helping Jamal tap his writing potential. change in formality and tone within the same movie. Note how different actors speak in different situations. Changes in their dialogue help reveal clues about Forrester. Page 276. their character. 276 media study 277 VA_L10PE-u02s33-meFor.indd 276-277 3/23/11 12:30:37 AM 175 VA_L10PE-u02-uo.indd 175 28/03/11 11:53 PM unit 2 Text Analyzing Characters Analysis Slovenly manners, a magnetic personality, a competitive streak—these are the Workshop kinds of qualities that can shape your impressions of other people. For example, an egomaniac is probably not someone you would want as a friend. But finding out why that person behaves the way he or she does might change your opinion. Characters in literature can be just as complicated as real people. By closely analyzing characters, you can get more out of the stories you read and gain insights into human nature. Virginia Standards of Learning Part 1: Character Development Included in this workshop: Writers use many techniques to create their characters. Sometimes, the narrator 10.4 The student will read, comprehend, and analyze of a story will tell you directly about a character, as in this example: “Enrique’s literary texts of different cultures active imagination often got him into trouble.” More often, though, you will find and eras. 10.4l Compare and contrast character development out about characters indirectly. The writer may describe in a play to characterization in other forms. 10.4m Use reading • a character’s physical appearance strategies to monitor comprehension throughout the reading process. • a character’s actions, thoughts, and speech • other characters’ reactions to and comments about the character By examining these characterization techniques, you can infer a character’s traits, or qualities, such as insecurity or bravery. For example, what can you infer about this character from the following sentences? “Elena eyed her teammates critically. Am I the only one who knows how to play this game? she thought.” The extent to which a writer develops a character depends on the character’s role in a story. Complex, highly developed characters, known as round characters, take center stage and seem the most lifelike. Flat characters, on the other hand, are one-sided. round characters flat characters Characteristics Characteristics • are complex; exhibit a • are defined by only one variety of traits or two traits • show a range of emotions • show only a few emotions • display strengths and • may be stereotypes or weaknesses stock characters • often change over the • don’t grow or change course of a story Role in the Story Role in the Story • to serve as main characters who • to serve as minor characters who advance the plot advance the plot or provide information • to help develop the theme • to reveal something about the main characters 176 unit 2: character development VA_L10PE-u02-law.indd 176 3/28/11 2:01:40 PM model 1: character traits How do Mrs. Wilson’s thoughts about her daughter affect your impression not only of the daughter but also of Mrs. Wilson herself? from The Opportunity Short story by John Cheever Close Read Mrs. Wilson sometimes thought that her daughter Elise was dumb. Elise 1. Based on Mrs. Wilson’s was her only daughter, her only child, but Mrs. Wilson was not so blinded thoughts about her by love that the idea that Elise might be stupid did not occasionally cross her daughter, how would you mind. The girl’s father had died when she was eight, Mrs. Wilson had never describe Elise? 5 remarried, and the girl and her mother lived affectionately and closely. When 2. What do Mrs. Wilson’s Elise was a child, she had been responsive and lively, but as she grew into thoughts reveal about adolescence, as her body matured, her disposition changed, and some of the the kind of mother wonderful clarity of her spirit was lost. At sixteen she seemed indolent, and to she is? Cite details to have developed a stubborn indifference to the hazards and rewards of life. support your answer. model 2: round and flat characters Here, a man named César reflects on the unfortunate turn his life has taken. As you read, pay attention to César’s thoughts about his son. from A Place Where the Sea Remembers Novel by Sandra Benítez When he was twenty-one, he had married Concha Ojeda. It was she who Close Read had allowed him to turn himself over to the sea. But now Concha was gone and in the months since the accident, the boy had gone mute and was clearly 1. Is César a round or flat character? Cite details to in decline. The boy needed a mother’s love, he needed a father’s strength, and support your answer. 5 there was none of one and little left of the other. César thought of Concha’s sister, who lived in Oaxaca.