The term “Elements of Fiction” includes such things as setting, characters, plot, methods of characterization, point of view, theme and symbolism. Each of them is used to develop the story, but sometimes authors focus on one element among others. I chose methods of characterization for this essay. Authors can describe their characters directly and indirectly. In the last case they demonstrate personalities with the aid of thoughts, words, actions and appearance. Many stories include both direct and indirect characterization. The element’s development and its influence on the literary interest will be shown on the basis of two short stories: The Night Before Thanksgiving by Sarah Orne Jewett and the Chocking Victim by Alexandra Kleeman.
The first story’s main character is an old woman Mrs. Mary Ann Robb, whose neighbors make her move to a poorhouse. One of them, John Mander, makes the most efforts, because he wants to take character’s farm. Mrs. Robb understands she cannot do anything and is ready to spend her last moments at home on the night before Thanksgiving Day. However, fears did not come true, because of the returning of Johnny Harris. She cared about him before, and the man decided to return thanks to her after he succeeded in life. Author almost did not use direct characterization in this short story. There are few examples, like: “She was strong enough not only to do a woman's work inside her house, but almost a man's work outside in her piece of garden ground” (Jewett). Author shows that Mrs. Robb was a strong woman that did not surrender herself to despair after her husband left and always tried to help people who were poorer than her. However, own life conditions, diseases and age made her weak and small and neglected as her own house. Author also mentioned that the woman “was left, lame-footed and lame-handed” (Jewett). The direct characterization here helps readers to imagine character’s basic appearance and life situation. It works the same way in the case of Johnny Harris the second person who appears in the story. He was characterized as a tall man who “had found plenty of hard times, but luck had come at last” (Jewett). Readers get the other information with the aid of the indirect characterization.
This method was used to describe Mrs. Robb’s main “enemy” John Mander. He “was waiting impatiently to get her tiny farm into his own hands waited now like a spider for his poor prey” (Jewett). Such author’s decisions are of literary interest, because readers do not need direct descriptions to imagine the character. In this case people see an unpleasant, mercantile man, who also was avaricious, because he reproached Mrs. Robb for her help to others. Similar method helps to see Johnny Harris as a nice and active man, who knows how to manage priorities. First of all, he cared about the fire and the delivery of presents, and then went to the long dialogue. In the case of Mrs. Robb the whole story shows examples of the indirect characterization that demonstrated woman’s desperation and following happiness. The story showed indirectly she was an independent personality. “She looked with a horrible shrinking and dread at the thought of being asked, out of pity, to join in some Thanksgiving feast” (Jewett), - woman’s feelings demonstrated that she did not want to show her weakness in spite the fact she had problems. Mrs. Robb’s thoughts about Johnny Harris showed she remained a kind person who did not wait for a support for her previous actions. And her reaction to Harris’s arrival demonstrated the woman was ready for the visit from the poorhouse, but still wanted to buy some time.
The Chocking Victim is a modern story, which main characters are thirty-two years old Karen and her infant daughter Lila. Mother thought their neighbor chocked and decided to take the child for a walk to “overwrite” these terrible memories. An incident with the stroller made Karen to leave Lila with Linda, whom she met in the café. After the mother returned, she saw that the woman disappeared and left the baby alone. At the end of the story Karen worried that the baby will remember this event and it will influence on her future life. Author also used direct and indirect characterizations in this story. She gave a description of Karen as a woman who looked younger than her real age. “She had hair to her shoulders and a body like a girl’s, with knobby joints she looked like a teen-age nanny, someone from another country who was underpaid and exploited” (Kleeman). Woman worried about her daughter because her own teenage experience that included fascination with death, pyromania and cutting. The direct characterization was also used to describe an appearance of Linda and minor characters, like the second visitor of the café and the man whom Karen met in the pharmacy. Linda was shown as a possible young grandmother in “green silk blouse and pink patterned scarf [She was] a sort of freelance psychoanalyst, consultant, therapist, whatever you please” (Kleeman). The direct characterization helps readers to imagine characters’ appearance and gives some clues about their personalities that are developed by the indirect method.
For example, it was used to describe Puldron who was an indirect cause of problem like Mander in The Night Before Thanksgiving. The direct characterization shows he is an unlikable retiree who suffers from severe cough. The indirect method used actions to create an image of an old man who has a mental disorder or just wants to annoy his neighbor. This trait was shown by his behavior with mail: “[he pawed] piece by piece through her bills and catalogues ripped out and folded [pages] into a tight packet” (Kleeman). Linda looked like a talkative, self-absorbed woman: “[they] had spoken mostly about Linda herself, mostly in glowing terms, without Karen’s learning anything concrete that would make her real” (Kleeman). She also appeared to be an unreliable and careless person; Linda left the baby to her fate in spite the fact it was her idea to take care about Lila until Karen’s returning. Thoughts and actions of the main character showed she felt alienated after the daughter’s birth and did not know directly how to behave in these new conditions. Author’s direct description showed that, in spite of the young appearance, “mentally she was older than ever, as tired in the morning as if it were the end of the day” (Kleeman). Fo9llowing actions characterized Karen as a careless personality – she easily left her child with the charismatic stranger. This trait was supported by the woman’s worries about husband’s complains in case of stroller’s loose: “you’re a net with one big hole in it. Everything just slips through you” (Kleeman). The woman did not hurry to her baby and stopped to talk to a man; she also worried about Lila’s mental condition, but did not do much to improve it.
The development of methods of characterization in both stories helps readers to “look inside” the situation. Authors’ direct descriptions create a frame, and indirect tools, like actions and characters’ thoughts, fill it and create depth. The dominance of the indirect characterization in both stories gives readers an opportunity to form own opinion. Authors do not say directly their characters are “good” or “bad”. It is up to the audience to judge their personalities according to behavior. This freedom of choice places methods of characterization in a center of the literary interest. Depending on the reader, Mrs. Robb can be treated as generous, decent person or foolish, arrogant person; and Karen’s personality ranges between “tired, inexperienced mother” and “careless woman”.
Works Cited
Jewett, Sarah Orne. “The Night Before Thanksgiving”. Public.coe.edu. n. d. Web. 31 May 2016.
Kleeman, Alexandra. “Choking Victim”. Newyorker.com. 2 May 2016. Web. 31 May 2016.
