Exploring Character Dynamics in Stories
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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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.
