Characterization

This post will analyze the various methods of characterization and types of characters depicted in all three stories.

"Everyday Use" employs a combination of Indirect and Direct Characterization. The narrator implies through their opinions that Dee is fairly uppity. This character image is developed indirectly later on when Dee is actually introduced in the story. The reader then gets the feeling that she is fairly bossy and condescending, not very accustomed to getting her own way. Ultimately, Dee is just a flat, static character. She starts off hurtful and condescending and ends that way as well.

"Hunters in the Snow" relies completely on Indirect Characterization. The story is all told focusing on Tub, but we do not hear his thoughts or feelings towards the other characters. Everything that we know about the characters comes through indirectly reading them. All three of the characters seem to be fairly round. Kenny appears to be rude, angry, and mentally unstable, but he also shows various signs of compassion and understanding. Tub appears to be a stereotypical fat guy who takes the brunt of his friends jokes, but he breaks the stereotype in that he does not grow to resent them but actually deepens his friendship with Frank, showing his trust in him and his deep care for his friends (as long as their name isn't Kenny). Frank appears to be a bit of a crappy friend and mildly unintelligent, but he also shows a tendency to prattle off sagely wisdom about love and friendship. Ultimately, though, all of the characters are static. They do not undergo some great change that suddenly makes them compassionate or understanding or wise. They simply always were. The only one who undergoes a dramatic change is Kenny. Because he's dead.

"Bartleby the Scrivener," on the exact opposite end, relies almost entirely on Direct Characterization. The narrator goes on for pages describing the exact nature of each character. Very little requires actual inference on the part of the reader. All of the characters are fairly flat. Nippers has indigestion; Ginger Nut is a messengerboy; Turkey is a drunk. The most intriguing character is Bartleby, but ultimately he is not actually developed much at all. He is only interesting because he is so simple, yet this simplicity makes him seem strange. A real person does not act as one-dimensionally as Bartleby does. He appears to undergo a change throughout the story, but really this change is just a progression from mild depression to severe depression. He avoids human interaction, then he quits work, then he quits eating. So he undergoes a change...but not really.

These are ginger nuts, apparently