Big and Bold

A character is someone a reader can see, imagine and know. We, as readers, fall in love, despise or feel indifferent about characters. Our feelings and attitudes towards characters play a critical role in our participation and involvement in the story. In the stories we have read in class, authors have had similar techniques in creating characters that keep us invested in the story.

Big bold statements.

They get our attention.

Oates, Wolf and Bloom state their character's pivotal mannerisms in the very beginning throwing us deep into the characters' thought processes. In "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been", Oates introduces Connie as beautiful, vain, shallow and selfish. In "Bullet to the Brain", Wolf defines Anders by his "murderous temper", short fuse, smart mouth and impatience. In "Silver Water", Bloom tells us that Rose, "had her first psychotic break when she was fifteen". Characters' habits define and give us reason to their behavior or thoughts. Their mannerisms become critical to the plot and the basis of conflict in the story.

Intimate details give large indications to a character's persona. Bloom repeatedly mentions Rose's habitual TV watching and love for fast food jingles, baggy sweatpants and music.

Besides mannerisms, dialogue is essential to conflict and character development. Dialogue controls the pacing of a story, either focusing on a particular scene or quickly advancing the plot by conversation. Dialogue also creates a character's voice, giving reader's a more personalized perspective through the character's eyes. In order to help us understand Rose's mental illness, Bloom creates small problems where Rose's reactions become important indicators of her character.

"I want to go to bed. I want to go to bed and be in my head. I want to go to bed and be in my head and just wear red. For red is the color, that my baby wore and once more, it's true, yes, it is, it's true."

Regardless of the order, successful characters are ones readers feel a strong emotion for. In order to create strong characters, authors utilize techniques like dialogue, mannerisms and voice.