Character Dynamics in Stories
Story Elements
Story Elements
Characters
Characters
A
dynamic character
is one
who
goes through a
personality change
due to the
events in the story.
A
static character
is one
whose personality
does not
change throughout the story.
Round Characters
Round Characters
A
round character
is one
whose personality, background,
motives, and other features are
fully described or explained by
the author. In general, main
characters are round because
many insights are given.
Flat Characters
Flat Characters
A
flat character
is one who is
not fully described but is useful
in carrying out some narrative
purpose of the author. They tend
to be minor characters.
Dynamic and Round
Dynamic and Round
In most books the main character is
both
dynamic
and
round
.
Round and Static
Round and Static
Characters can be
round
and
static
. For example, think about
the character James Bond. We
know a great deal about this
character’s personality (
round
),
yet he does not go through an
inner personality change from the
beginning to the end of the story
(
static
). Often the side-kick in a
story is
round
and
static
.
Dynamic and Flat
Dynamic and Flat
Characters cannot be
dynamic
and
flat
, because in a flat character we
do not know enough about them to
recognize a change.
Dynamic or Static
Dynamic or Static
Round or Flat
Round or Flat
Ebenezer Scrooge
from Charles Dickens's
A Christmas Carol
Dynamic and Round
Billy Coleman
from Wilson Rawls
Where the Red Fern Grows
Dynamic or Static
Dynamic or Static
Round or Flat
Round or Flat
Dynamic and Round
Will Coleman (Billy’s dad)
from Wilson Rawls’
Where the Red Fern Grows
Dynamic or Static
Dynamic or Static
Round or Flat
Round or Flat
Static and Flat
Mayor Cole
from Jeanne DuPrau’s
The City of Ember
Dynamic or Static
Dynamic or Static
Round or Flat
Round or Flat
Static and Flat
Lina Mayfleet
from Jeanne DuPrau’s
The City of Ember
Dynamic or Static
Dynamic or Static
Round or Flat
Round or Flat
Dynamic and Round
Robin
from Batman
Dynamic or Static
Dynamic or Static
Round or Flat
Round or Flat
Static and Round
Setting
Setting
The setting of a story includes
the
time
and
place
in which
the story takes place. Some
stories may have more than
one setting.
What is the setting for
Where the Red Fern Grows
?
Setting
Setting
Where the Red Fern Grows
Where the Red Fern Grows is
set in the Ozark Mountains on
Cherokee land in northeastern
Oklahoma during the Great
Depression.
Setting
Setting
What is the setting for The City of
Ember?
Setting
Setting
The City of Ember
is set in an
underground city in the future.
Setting
Setting
First-Person
First-Person
Point of View
Point of View
In the
first-person point of view
one
character tells the story. This character
reveals only personal thoughts and feelings
of what s/he sees. The writer uses pronouns
such as "I“, "me“, “mine”, or "my".
Example:
I
woke up this morning feeling terrific.
I
hopped out of bed excited to start the new
day.
I
knew that today was the day
my
big
surprise would come.
Second-Person Point of View
With the
second-person point of view
the
narrator tells the story using the pronoun
"you". The character is someone similar to
you.
Example:
You
wake up feeling really terrific. Then
you
hop out of bed excited to start the new day.
You
know that today is the day that
your
big
surprise will come.
This is rarely used in literature. It can be seen
in Choose Your Own Adventure books.
Third-Person Point of View
The
third-person point of view
is the most
commonly used in fiction. When writing in the
third-person you will use pronouns such as
"he", "she", or "it".
Example:
Brian woke up feeling terrific.
He
hopped out
of bed excited to start the new day.
He
knew
that today was the day that
his
big surprise
would come.
Group Practice
Using your response cards, determine if
each of the following excerpts are written in
first
,
second
, or
third
-point of view.
1
st
, 2
nd
, or 3
rd
Point of View
Excerpt from
Woodsong
by Gary Paulsen
I go up to the front of the team in the
darkness and drag them around, realizing we
are lost. My clothes have been ripped on tree
limbs and my face is bleeding from cuts, and
when I look back down the side of the
mountain we have just climbed I see twenty-
seven head lamps bobbing up the trail.
Twenty-seven teams have taken our smell as
the valid trail and are following us. Twenty-
seven teams must be met head on in the
narrow brush and passed and told to turn
around.
Excerpt from
Woodsong
by Gary Paulsen
First-Person Point of View
Excerpted from
Soldier's Heart
by Gary Paulsen
There would be a shooting war. There were rebels who had
violated the law and fired on Fort Sumter and the only thing
they'd respect was steel, it was said, and he knew they were
right, and the Union was right, and one other thing they said
as well--if a man didn't hurry he'd miss it. The only shooting
war to come in a man's life and if a man didn't step right
along he'd miss the whole thing.
Charley didn't figure to miss it. The only problem was that
Charley wasn't rightly a man yet, at least not to the army. He
was fifteen and while he worked as a man worked, in the
fields all of a day and into night, and looked like a man
standing tall and just a bit thin with hands so big they
covered a stove lid, he didn't make a beard yet and his voice
had only just dropped enough so he could talk with men.
1
1
st
st
, 2
, 2
nd
nd
, or 3
, or 3
rd
rd
Point of View
Point of View
Excerpted from
Soldier's Heart
by Gary Paulsen
Third-Person Point of View
Excerpted from
Father Water, Mother
Woods
by Gary Paulsen
It started that simply. At the courthouse or
the library there was a large bulletin board,
and for a dollar you could sign the board and
write down your guess to win the car-
through-the-ice raffle. Of course, you never
met anyone who had won, but only those who
knew somebody who had won, and therein, in
the winning, the simplicity was lost.
1
1
st
st
, 2
, 2
nd
nd
, or 3
, or 3
rd
rd
Point of View
Point of View
Excerpted from
Father Water, Mother Woods
by Gary Paulsen
Second-Peron Point of View
Excerpted from
Nightjohn
by Gary Paulsen
A
"Tonight we just do A." He sat back on his heels and pointed. "There
it be."
I looked at it, wondered how it stood. "Where's the bottom to it?"
"There it stands on two feet, just like you."
"What does it mean?"
"It means
A
--just like I said. It's the first letter in the alphabet. And
when you see it you make a sound like this:
ayyy
, or
ahhhh.
"
"That's reading? To make that sound?"
He nodded. "When you see that letter on paper or a sack or in the
dirt you make one of those sounds. That's reading."
1
1
st
st
, 2
, 2
nd
nd
, or 3
, or 3
rd
rd
Point of View
Point of View
Excerpted from
Nightjohn
by Gary Paulsen
Third-Person Point of View
Excerpted from
Caught by the Sea
by Gary
Paulsen
I drove to California that very day, straight to
the coast, then north, away from people, to a
small town named Guadalupe, near Santa
Maria. There I bought some cans of beans and
bread and Spam and fruit cocktail and a cheap
sleeping bag and then walked out through the
sand dunes, where I could hear the surf
crashing. I walked until I could see the water
coming in, rolling in from the vastness, and I
sat down and let the sea heal me
.
1
1
st
st
, 2
, 2
nd
nd
, or 3
, or 3
rd
rd
Point of View
Point of View
Excerpted from
Caught by the Sea
by Gary Paulsen
First-Person Point of View
Excerpted from
Guts
by Gary Paulsen
I have spent an inordinate amount of time in
wilderness woods, much of it in northern Minnesota,
some in Canada and some in the Alaskan wilds. I
have hunted and trapped and fished and have been
exposed to almost all kinds of wilderness animals;
I’ve had bear come at me, been stalked by a
mountain lion, been bitten by snakes and punctured
by porcupines and torn by foxes and once pecked
by an attacking raven, but I have never seen
anything rivaling the madness that seems to infect
a large portion of the moose family.
1
1
st
st
, 2
, 2
nd
nd
, or 3
, or 3
rd
rd
Point of View
Point of View
Excerpted from
Guts
by Gary Paulsen
First-Person Point of View
Excerpted from
Winterkill
by Gary Paulsen
And I would like to stop the story of Duda here and
tell how he got his divorce and married Bonnie and
they adopted me and we bought a farm . . . . That's
how it would end in a movie, with Rock Hudson
playing Duda and Doris Day playing Bonnie, and
that's how it
should
end, and that's how I dream of
it ending almost every night, until I wake up
sweating and remember that it isn't a movie and it
doesn't end that way.
1
1
st
st
, 2
, 2
nd
nd
, or 3
, or 3
rd
rd
Point of View
Point of View
Excerpted from
Winterkill
by Gary Paulsen
First-Person Point of View
Third-Person Point of View
Third-person point of view may
be written using several
variations.
In the
third-person objective
the story is told
without
describing any character's
thoughts, opinions, or
feelings
. Think of this as seeing
what a camera can see. A
camera can not see what is
going on inside someone’s mind.
Third-Person Objective
Third-person objective is rarely used except in
easy picture books.
Example
The alarm clock sounded. Brian cut off the
clock and jumped out of bed. He had a smile
on his face.
Third-Person Point of View
In the
third-person omniscient
, the reader
knows exactly what is going on inside various
characters’ heads in regards to their thoughts
and feelings.
Joe is
sad.
Tim is
sneaky.
Pete is
in love.
Rob is
surprised
.
Third-Person Omniscient
Example from
Woods Runner
by Gary Paulsen
Although Samuel's parents lived in the wilderness,
they were not a part of it. They had been raised in
towns and had been educated in schools where
they'd been taught to read and write and play
musical instruments. They moved west when Samuel
was a baby, so that they could devote themselves to
a quiet life of hard physical work and contemplation.
They loved the woods
,
but they did not
understand them
.
Not like Samuel
.
(Here the reader knows both the parents’ and
Samuel’s feelings.)
Third-Person Point of View
In
third-person limited
,
the reader knows
only one character's mind, either throughout
the entire work or in a specific section. The
narration is limited to what can be known,
seen, thought, or judged from a single
character's perspective.
Sally wondered
what the boys
were thinking.
Conflict is the struggle between the
opposing forces on which the action in a
work of literature depends.
In short stories, there is usually one major
conflict. In longer stories, there could be
several conflicts.
Conflict
Conflict
Some forms of conflict include the
following:
•
Person vs. Person
•
Person vs. Self
•
Person vs. the Environment
•
Person vs. Technology
Conflict
Conflict
Person vs. Person
Person vs. Person
A
person vs. person
conflict is between two
forms of like beings.
Examples
From Where the Red Fern Grows
-
Billy and his dogs are attacked by a mountain
lion, and they must do everything they can to
survive.
From Weasel
-
Nathan is captured by Weasel, an Indian fighter.
Earlier in the book, Weasel had attacked
Nathan's pa, had taken away Pa’s riffle, and had
killed the farm animals.
Person vs. Self
Person vs. Self
In a
person vs. self
conflict the main
character has a problem within him/herself.
Examples
From Weasel
Nathan spends the winter months struggling
with his conscious. Should he go back to
Weasel’s cabin to seek revenge or forget about
Weasel?
Person vs. the Environment
Person vs. the Environment
In a
person vs. the environment
conflict a character
is struggling against the forces of nature.
Example:
From Where the Red Fern Grows -
Little Ann and Old Dan tree a coon in the tallest tree
in the river bottoms.
From Where the Red Fern Grows -
Billy enters the championship coon hunt and
encounters the snowstorm.
Person vs.
Person vs.
Technology
Technology
In a person vs. technology conflict, a
character has a problem with robots or
machines.
Example
From Hatchet –
Brian flying the airplane after the pilot
dies.
Response Cards
Response Cards
Use your response cards to show the type of
conflict in each of the following slides.
Person vs. Person
Person vs. Technology
Person vs. Person
Person vs. Person
Person vs. Self
Person vs. Technology
Person vs. Person
Person vs. Nature
Person vs. Nature
Person vs. Person
Person vs. Nature
Person vs. Person
Person vs. Nature
Person vs. Person
Person vs. Self
Person vs. Person
Person vs. Person
Person vs. Nature
Plot
The plot is the story that is told in a novel, play, or
movie. The plot has five components.
Plot Structure Components
Exposition
Rising Action
Climax
Falling Action
Resolution
Exposition
Exposition
The
exposition
is the introduction of
the story. It contains the
setting
,
introduces the
main characters
, and
gives
background
information. It
is the
information needed to understand a
story.
Rising Action
The
rising action
is the
portion of the story where a
character tries to solve the
conflict
. This is the
longest
part of the story.
Climax
The
climax
is the
tensest
moment of the story.
It is the
turning point
in the story that
occurs when characters try to
resolve the complication.
Falling Action
The
falling action
is where the
characters begin to
apply a solution
to
the conflict and tie up loose ends.
Resolution
Resolution
The
resolution
is how everything turns out in
the story.
It is the set of events that bring
the story to a close.
Theme
Theme
The theme is the insight about life or human
nature that the writer shares with the reader.
It is usually not stated directly, but must be
inferred.
The theme is the message of a story. Ask
yourself this question. What should you learn
from the story?
Theme Using Hatchet
Theme Using Hatchet
Theme
Proof (Evidence)
Never give up - Determination
Brian kept flying the plane and
radioing for help after the pilot died.
Brian hunted and searched for food.
Brian built a shelter to protect himself
from the elements.
Brian kept working until he was able
to get inside the plane to get the
emergency pack.
Theme Using Weasel
Theme Using Weasel
Theme
Proof (Evidence)
Letting Go of Revenge and Anger
~ Moral Choices
Nathan is consumed with anger after he
becomes friends with Erza and learns
how Weasel has mistreated him.
Nathan struggles when he comes face-to-
face with Weasel. ~~~ Weasel is an evil
man who has attacked Nathan’s father,
killed the animals on his farm, stolen his
father’s gun and animals.
Nathan decides to take the law in his own
hands only to discover Weasel has
already died.
Learn about the different types of characters in storytelling - dynamic, static, round, and flat. Discover how character personalities evolve or remain constant throughout a narrative, illustrated with examples from popular literature such as "A Christmas Carol" and "Where the Red Fern Grows."
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Presentation Transcript
Characters A dynamic character is one who goes personality change due to the events in the story. through a A whose change throughout the story. static character personality is one not does
Round Characters A round character is one whose personality, background, motives, and other features are fully described or explained by the author. In general, main characters are round because many insights are given.
Flat Characters A flat character is one who is not fully described but is useful in carrying out some narrative purpose of the author. They tend to be minor characters.
Dynamic and Round In most books the main character is both dynamic and round.
Round and Static Characters can be round and static. For example, think about the character James Bond. We know a great deal about this character s personality yet he does not go through an inner personality change from the beginning to the end of the story (static). Often the side-kick in a story is round and static. (round),
Dynamic and Flat Characters cannot be dynamic and flat, because in a flat character we do not know enough about them to recognize a change.
Dynamic or Static Round or Flat Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol
Dynamic or Static Round or Flat Billy Coleman from Wilson Rawls Where the Red Fern Grows
Dynamic or Static Round or Flat Will Coleman (Billy s dad) from Wilson Rawls Where the Red Fern Grows
Dynamic or Static Round or Flat Mayor Cole from Jeanne DuPrau s The City of Ember
Dynamic or Static Round or Flat Lina Mayfleet from Jeanne DuPrau s The City of Ember
Dynamic or Static Round or Flat Robin from Batman
Setting The setting of a story includes the time and place in which the story takes place. Some stories may have more than one setting.
Setting What is the setting for Where the Red Fern Grows?
Setting Where the Red Fern Grows Where the Red Fern Grows is set in the Ozark Mountains on Cherokee land in northeastern Oklahoma during the Great Depression.
Setting What is the setting for The City of Ember?
Setting The City of Ember is set in an underground city in the future.
First-Person Point of View In the first-person point of view one character tells the story. This character reveals only personal thoughts and feelings of what s/he sees. The writer uses pronouns such as "I ,"me , mine , or "my". Example: I woke up this morning feeling terrific. I hopped out of bed excited to start the new day. I knew that today was the day my big surprise would come.
Second-Person Point of View With the second-person point of view the narrator tells the story using the pronoun "you". The character is someone similar to you. Example: You wake up feeling really terrific. Then you hop out of bed excited to start the new day. You know that today is the day that your big surprise will come. This is rarely used in literature. It can be seen in Choose Your Own Adventure books.
Third-Person Point of View The third-person point of view is the most commonly used in fiction. When writing in the third-person you will use pronouns such as "he", "she", or "it". Example: Brian woke up feeling terrific. He hopped out of bed excited to start the new day. He knew that today was the day that his big surprise would come.
Group Practice Using your response cards, determine if each of the following excerpts are written in first, second, or third-point of view.
1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View Excerpt from Woodsong by Gary Paulsen I go up to the front of the team in the darkness and drag them around, realizing we are lost. My clothes have been ripped on tree limbs and my face is bleeding from cuts, and when I look back down the side of the mountain we have just climbed I see twenty- seven head lamps bobbing up the trail. Twenty-seven teams have taken our smell as the valid trail and are following us. Twenty- seven teams must be met head on in the narrow brush and passed and told to turn around.
Excerpt from Woodsong by Gary Paulsen First-Person Point of View
1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View Excerpted There would be a shooting war. There were rebels who had violated the law and fired on Fort Sumter and the only thing they'd respect was steel, it was said, and he knew they were right, and the Union was right, and one other thing they said as well--if a man didn't hurry he'd miss it. The only shooting war to come in a man's life and if a man didn't step right along he'd miss the whole thing. from Soldier's Heart by Gary Paulsen Charley didn't figure to miss it. The only problem was that Charley wasn't rightly a man yet, at least not to the army. He was fifteen and while he worked as a man worked, in the fields all of a day and into night, and looked like a man standing tall and just a bit thin with hands so big they covered a stove lid, he didn't make a beard yet and his voice had only just dropped enough so he could talk with men.
Excerpted from Soldier's Heart by Gary Paulsen Third-Person Point of View
1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View Excerpted from Father Water, Mother Woods by Gary Paulsen It started that simply. the library there was a large bulletin board, and for a dollar you could sign the board and write down your guess to win the car- through-the-ice raffle. met anyone who had won, but only those who knew somebody who had won, and therein, in the winning, the simplicity was lost. At the courthouse or Of course, you never
Excerpted from Father Water, Mother Woods by Gary Paulsen Second-Peron Point of View
1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View Excerpted from Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen A "Tonight we just do A." He sat back on his heels and pointed. "There it be." I looked at it, wondered how it stood. "Where's the bottom to it?" "There it stands on two feet, just like you." "What does it mean?" "It means A--just like I said. It's the first letter in the alphabet. And when you see it you make a sound like this: ayyy, or ahhhh." "That's reading? To make that sound?" He nodded. "When you see that letter on paper or a sack or in the dirt you make one of those sounds. That's reading."
Excerpted from Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen Third-Person Point of View
1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View Excerpted from Caught by the Sea by Gary Paulsen I drove to California that very day, straight to the coast, then north, away from people, to a small town named Guadalupe, near Santa Maria. There I bought some cans of beans and bread and Spam and fruit cocktail and a cheap sleeping bag and then walked out through the sand dunes, where I could hear the surf crashing. I walked until I could see the water coming in, rolling in from the vastness, and I sat down and let the sea heal me.
Excerpted from Caught by the Sea by Gary Paulsen First-Person Point of View
1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View Excerpted from Guts by Gary Paulsen I have spent an inordinate amount of time in wilderness woods, much of it in northern Minnesota, some in Canada and some in the Alaskan wilds. I have hunted and trapped and fished and have been exposed to almost all kinds of wilderness animals; I ve had bear come at me, been stalked by a mountain lion, been bitten by snakes and punctured by porcupines and torn by foxes and once pecked by an attacking raven, but I have never seen anything rivaling the madness that seems to infect a large portion of the moose family.
Excerpted from Guts by Gary Paulsen First-Person Point of View
1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View Excerpted from Winterkill by Gary Paulsen And I would like to stop the story of Duda here and tell how he got his divorce and married Bonnie and they adopted me and we bought a farm . . . . That's how it would end in a movie, with Rock Hudson playing Duda and Doris Day playing Bonnie, and that's how it should end, and that's how I dream of it ending almost every night, until I wake up sweating and remember that it isn't a movie and it doesn't end that way.
Excerpted from Winterkill by Gary Paulsen First-Person Point of View
Third-Person Point of View Third-person point of view may be written variations. using several In the third-person objective the story is describing any thoughts, opinions, feelings. Think of this as seeing what a camera can see. A camera can not see what is going on inside someone s mind. told without character's or
Third-Person Objective Third-person objective is rarely used except in easy picture books. Example The alarm clock sounded. Brian cut off the clock and jumped out of bed. He had a smile on his face.
Third-Person Point of View In the third-person omniscient, the reader knows exactly what is going on inside various characters heads in regards to their thoughts and feelings. Rob is surprised . Tim is sneaky. Joe is sad. Pete is in love.
Third-Person Omniscient Example from Woods Runner by Gary Paulsen Although Samuel's parents lived in the wilderness, they were not a part of it. They had been raised in towns and had been educated in schools where they'd been taught to read and write and play musical instruments. They moved west when Samuel was a baby, so that they could devote themselves to a quiet life of hard physical work and contemplation. They loved the woods, but they did not understand them. Not like Samuel. (Here the reader knows both the parents and Samuel s feelings.)
Third-Person Point of View In third-person limited, the reader knows only one character's mind, either throughout the entire work or in a specific section. The narration is limited to what can be known, seen, thought, or judged from a single character's perspective. Sally wondered what the boys were thinking.
Conflict Conflict is the struggle between the opposing forces on which the action in a work of literature depends. In short stories, there is usually one major conflict. In longer stories, there could be several conflicts.
Conflict Some forms of conflict include the following: Person vs. Person Person vs. Self Person vs. the Environment Person vs. Technology
Person vs. Person A person vs. person conflict is between two forms of like beings. Examples From Where the Red Fern Grows - Billy and his dogs are attacked by a mountain lion, and they must do everything they can to survive. From Weasel - Nathan is captured by Weasel, an Indian fighter. Earlier in the book, Weasel had attacked Nathan's pa, had taken away Pa s riffle, and had killed the farm animals.
