COLLECTION 4

When Do Kids Become Adults?

Character Types in Novels

• A character is an person or animal that takes action in a story.
• Objects can be characters like the Virgin Mary in The House of the Scorpion, although never seen is a constant character in Matt’s life
• The types of characters present in a novel depend on the novel’s needs
• A crime story will need a villain just as a romance novel will need a romantic hero.
• Characters can be more than one “type” of character

Character types cont’d…

• Dynamic character – any character who changes in one of four ways:
• Gains an understanding – may sympathize with the antagonist, change his/her perspective on his/her beliefs
• Grows in some way – learns a new skill, changes a personality trait (once was greedy, but now selfless)
• Makes a major decision – usually an internal conflict where the character chooses to do something that could result in major effects

Character types cont’d…

• Dynamic character cont’d…
• Takes a crucial action – does something that causes the story line to move
• Opposite of a static character
• “Dynamic ends up different!”
• Static character – a character who serves only one purpose in the novel’s function
• Events in the story DO NOT change a static character’s motivations, personality, etc.
• Rosa, Steven, Benito, and Tom are all examples of static characters
• Opposite of a dynamic character
• “Static stays the same!”

Character types cont’d…

• Stock character – an overexaggerated stereotypical character like the “school nerd” or “the mean girl” or “the caring, old woman”
• Celia in The House of the Scorpion is an example of a stock character
• Foil characters are created to be complete opposites of one another
• This allows the audience to really compare and contrast major characters like Snow White and the Evil Stepmother

Character types cont’d…

• Flat character – can be major or minor characters who show only one or two personality traits that DO NOT CHANGE
• A flat character may always be happy or always angry, and you will rarely see him/her show another side
• Opposite of a round character
• Round character – can be major or minor characters who show several different personality traits and are most lifelike in the novel
• Opposite of a flat character

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What is Dystopian Literature?

Dystopian fiction

Utopian fiction

• Creation of a terribly horrible or degraded society focused on mass poverty, unpleasantness, suffering, or oppression

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• “Dystopia” = “bad”, “place to live”

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• Antithesis of utopia

• A place, state, or condition that is ideally perfect in respect of politics, laws, customs, and conditions

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• “Utopia” = “good place”

Dystopian literature

• In a dystopian story, the society is the antagonist, or the enemy; it is a society actively working against the protagonist’s, or main character’s aims and ideas.

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• A dystopian society is viewed as subjective, meaning people view the society based on how they are treated within the society.
• If they don’t view the society as a bad place to live, then is it actually a bad place to live?

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What makes a novel “dystopian”?

• Backstory
• Dystopias are often part of a fictional universe, therefore a back story of how this world came into existence is necessary.
• The back story explains how the shift in control came to occur.
• Hero:
• The protagonist feels something is wrong with society and sets out to change it or to escape it.

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What makes a novel “dystopian”?

• Hero, cont’d:
• The protagonist could also be a high-standing, accepted hero who eventually realizes how the society is wrong and either attempts to change it or destroy it.
• The protagonist might question the existing social and political systems.
• The protagonist helps the audience recognize the negative aspects of the dystopian world through his/her perspective.

What makes a novel “dystopian”?

• Climax:
• In dystopian literature, the story is unresolved.
• The hero makes an individual stand and often fails, yet gives hope to others in the dystopia.
• Other times, the hero fails to achieve anything, and the dystopia continues as before.

What makes a novel “dystopian”?

• Conflict:
• The hero meets a person who represents the dystopia, usually the leader of the society.
• The hero also meets and is helped by a group of people who are trying to escape or destroy the dystopia.
• These people were once a part of society and have been exiled.

Types of dystopian controls

• Most dystopian works present a world in which the illusion of a perfect society is maintained through one or more of the following types of controls:
• Corporate control: One or more large corporations control society through products, advertising, and/or the media.
• Bureaucratic control: Society is controlled by a mindless bureaucracy through a tangle of red tape, relentless regulations, and incompetent government officials.

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Dystopian Control cont’d…

• Technological control: Society is controlled by technology—through computers, robots, and/or scientific means.

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• Philosophical/religious control: Society is controlled by philosophical or religious ideology often enforced through a dictatorship or theocratic government.

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Major themes in Dystopic Fiction

• A society worse than the society the reader lives in
• Attacks on creature comforts
• Magnification of social problems
• “herd” mentality, rather than individualism
• Protagonist considered leader, resourceful
• Common man is dumb and wasteful
• A subjective or skewed “happy ending”

Characteristics of a Dystopian Society���������

Propaganda is used to control the citizens of society.

Information, independent thought, and freedom are restricted.

A figurehead or concept is worshipped by the citizens of the society.

Citizens are considered to be under constant surveillance.

citizens live in a dehumanized state.

The natural world is banished and distrusted.

Citizens conform to uniform expectations. Individuality_ is bad.

The society is an illusion of a perfect utopian world.

Dystopian Control cont’d…

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