Reading and Responding to Fiction: Character

Looking Deeply at Characters

Today we are going to focus on character. Characters are people just like us, so they are complex beings with unique identities and a variety of characteristics. They have feelings, thoughts, difficulties, relationships, personalities, desires, goals, actions, experiences, strengths and weaknesses – just like we do. Readers know characters through how they look, what they say, how they act, and how others react to them.

As we read the story "Am I Blue?" by Bruce Coville, focus on and write notes on the characters on post-its or in the margins of the story.

Think about the:

• protagonist - the main character in a literary work who the reader often sympathizes with; he/she often goes on a journey (abstract or physical) in which he/she struggles and changes; 
• antagonist - a person who is opposed to, struggles against, or competes with the protagonist.

For each character think about:

1. Internal life (feelings, conflicts, characteristics):

➢ What are the characters’ strengths and weaknesses? Beliefs and values (things that are important to the character such as family or helping others)? Important and admirable qualities/characteristics?

➢ What are their problems? How do they deal with them? What does this show about them?

➢ How do they develop and change or resist change? What do they learn throughout the book? What discoveries and realizations do they have?

➢ How are the characters’ names significant and/or symbolic?

➢ What difficulties (conflicts, moral dilemmas, etc.) do the characters deal with? How are they dealt with? What does this reveal about them?


2.  External life (environment and relationships):

➢ How does the setting/environment in which they live affect them?

➢ How do they interact with other people? Who are her friends, families, enemies, etc.? What do the relationships show about him/her?

* How does your character act and what does your character say that is unusual and contradictory? Why does the character act in this way?

3. Making Connections (to yourself, other text, the world) ➢ What do you like and/or dislike about the character? When have you had a similar emotion, thought, or experience as one of the characters?

➢ Who does the character remind you of (other characters or people you know)?

➢ What do the characters represent or symbolize (ex. Fern represents the voice of the author; Wilbur symbolizes childhood innocence)?

Task: In your book club book and the story we will be reading as a class, take notes on internal and external lives of the characters.
In groups, create a synthesis page exploring the internal and external lives of one of the characters in "Am I Blue?". Include at least 4 characteristics of the internal and 4 of the external. Write supporting evidence and page # for each.