L. Russell

Character Analysis

CP 10

Character Analysis Assignment

Now that we’ve been studying characters throughout the last four selections, it is time to thoroughly analyze a character.

Choose a character in a classic literary work and analyze this character. Analyze means to examine, closely study and evaluate in order to better understand. Your paper should NOT be a general description of the character, but a focused analysis that presents a clear argument about the character and his or her significance to the novel. Basically, why is this character important, and/or why are his/her actions important to the story? You might focus on a particular aspect of the character or a particular moment in the work that reveals significant aspects of the character. Use examples from the text to support your argument. AVOID SUMMARIZING THE PLOT TOO MUCH! Some possible ways to focus your analysis are as follows:

  • Consider the character at the moment he or she must make an important decision. How did he or she come to this crisis? What are the options? What decision does the character make? What does that decision reveal about the character?
  • Analyze the character’s relationship with another character? What does the relationship reveal about him or her? How is the relationship significant to the rest of the novel?
  • What is the character’s most important trait? How does this trait shape the character as a whole? How does the character demonstrate this trait? How does this trait affect his or her interaction with other characters?
  • Does the character change over the course of the novel? How is the character different at the end of the novel than at the beginning? What brings about this change? Is the change sudden or gradual? If the character does not change, what does this reveal about him or her?
  • Analyze the impact the character has on the story. What makes this character so vital and necessary to the development of the plot, the conflict, the story itself?

Requirements:

-Five paragraphs—introduction (1), body (3), conclusion (1)

-One ½ pages (minimum)—typed, 12 font, Times New Roman, one-inch margins, double-spaced

-MLA format, Works Cited Page—include book/work

- Each body paragraph must have at least three examples from the text to support your main idea (including two quotes). YOU MUST EXPLAIN HOW THESE EXAMPLES SUPPORT YOUR IDEA. It is not enough to simply have the support. You need to explain how they help or prove your analysis.

Clarification on the Character Analysis

The point of this paper is to prove something about your character.

Steps:

  1. Pick the character that you feel you know the most about.
  2. Pick one of the bulleted themes
  3. Formulate an opinion
  4. Create 3 reasons as proof
  5. Find Quotes and evidence to prove your 3 reasons

Step 1)______

Step 2-3) ______

For Steps 4-5) See Grid below.

CHARACTER GRID OF ______

Descriptor

/

Supporting Details

/

Commentary

1 / a.
b.
c.
2. / a.
b.
c.
3. / a.
b.
c.

Weaving Quotes into Your Writing

Effective writers use a variety of techniques to integrate quotations into their text. When you use a quote in your writing, consider the following:

  • What am I trying to say?
  • Can a passage from the text (my notes/research) say it for me?
  • Have I explained the value of the quote?

Avoid “over-quoting”. It is important that your own voice is heard – use quotes to support your own views!

Our goal: To learn how to integrate supporting quotes into your essays so that the quotes flow smoothly out of your own words. That way, the quotes are given a context, they become part of your argument, and they do not distract the reader from your ideas.

Some guidelines:

  • Do not leave your quotes "naked." Make sure they are clearly connected to the argument you are trying to make.

NO: After June's humiliating piano recital, Waverly adds insult to injury. "You aren't a genius like me" (Tan 151).
YES: After June's humiliating piano recital, Waverly adds insult to injury by declaring, "You aren't a genius like me" (Tan 151).
  • Use brackets ([ ]) and ellipses (. . .) to change verbs or other parts of the original quotes when necessary. This technique is especially useful for maintaining present tense in your paper. P.S. Know the difference between using (. . .) and (. . . .).

NO: Dwight is a bully who takes out his anger and insecurity on those who are weaker than he is. "This made him furious; on the way back to the car he would kill anything he saw. He killed chipmunks, squirrels, blue jays, and robins"(Wolff 171).
YES: Dwight is a bully who takes out his anger and insecurity on those who are weaker than he is. While hunting, he boosts his ego by "kill[ing] anything he [sees]. He kill[s] chipmunks, squirrels, blue jays, and robins" (Wolff 171).
  • If you're quoting poetry, make sure you use a slash (/) to indicate where each line ends. That way, you are staying true to the text, and the reader will know that you are quoting poetry, instead of prose.

Ex.: When Duncan asks for an update on the battle, the captain describes the struggling armies as "two spent swimmers that do cling together/And choke their art" (Macbeth 1.2.10-11).
  • At the end of the quote, use the QUO-PAR-PUNC Rule: Quotation marks-Parentheses-Punctuation (Special thanks to Sally Wallace of the BrentwoodSchool for teaching me this rule!). Within the parentheses, you usually write the author's last name and the page number. If you are only quoting from one book throughout your paper, then you only have to put the page number. If you are quoting Shakespeare, then you need to cite the play, act, scene, and line numbers.

NO: When Waverly accuses her mother of showing off, Lindo's eyes turn "into dangerous black slits. She ha[s] no words for [Waverly], just sharp silence. (Tan 102)"
YES: When Waverly accuses her mother of showing off, Lindo's eyes turn "into dangerous black slits. She ha[s] no words for [Waverly], just sharp silence" (Tan 102).

Note: If a quote ends with a question mark or exclamation point, then put that punctuation before the quotation marks, to make sure the intended emotion is retained.

Ex.: During their phone conversation, Toby's father tries to win Toby over by saying, "I've made some mistakes . . . . We all have. But that's behind us. Right, Tober?" (211).
  • If there is a quote within the quote you are using, then use single quotation marks to set off the inner quote.

Ex.: When Lena shows Ying-Ying around her new house, Ying-Ying complains that "the slant of the floor makes her feel as if she is 'running down'" (Tan 163).
  • When your quote is longer than four lines, "block it off" from the rest of your paragraph. In this case, you don't use quotation marks (except for lines of dialogue), and the QUO-PAR-PUNC rule does not apply. (Note: Avoid using very long quotes--they sometimes bog the paper down.)

Ex.: Lady Macbeth calls on supernatural powers so that she can assist in Duncan's murder:
. . . Come you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood.
Stop up th'access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose . . . . (Macbeth 1.5.47-53)
Lady Macbeth thus reveals the all-consuming nature of her ambition: she is even willing to give up her identity as a woman to get what she wants. (And the paper goes on from there.)
  • Last but not least, always remember to cite your quotes! Do not risk plagiarizing the author's words!

DUE: Tuesday, October 15

Chart: 15 points

Paper: 40 points

WRITING THESIS STATEMENTS

Lesson adapted from esnider.wiki.springboro.org

1