Character Development In Literature

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Characters are the most important part of a story; they are everything in literary fiction. Books and stories are interesting because of their characters; they introduce the plot and conflict. Not that character replaces plot and setting or theme and meaning, but character intimately relates to all those. Although characters are sometimes categorized as round or flat, static or dynamic, every character in fiction must have complexities and uniqueness, but is much more than that, a good, well-written and developed character is the essence and backbone of every story ever write. In each story we read through the semester, we could analyze the importance and deepness in characters, even though they were short stories or poems there are certain…show more content…
The shame she felt reflected in her words “[…] my eyes filled with tears when I thought of how I was simply going to say “Salaam”…so many words would have been trapped inside her”. Even when she decides to do the right thing she felts guilty because she knows that this will repeat and some day she will just said, “salaam”. This reflects conflicting emotions every human live through everyday. Human beings are the sum of all three dimensions; this is the purpose of character development. What the world sees is one of them, appearances, even if it’s all masks for dark and deeply hidden secrets. It is a consolidation of their best and worst. What the world sees and assigns meaning to. This may be simple, but if it is not done correctly the character will simply lack of deepness because any other dimension go along with this, perhaps sometimes if you only develop this dimension the only result will be a one-dimensional…show more content…
This is the case of Jimmy T. Black in the short story “Skins” by Joseph Bruchac. The main purpose of this story is strengthened by the lies that Jimmy hides through the whole plot. Hence the main character learns the importance of accepting your true self, quoting him “underneath our skins everyone´s blood is red”. The stripping of all the “cool perfect kid” characteristics, gives Jimmy a more real deepness and makes him a credible human being. Another important trait of three-dimensional characters is the backstory and inner demons each character posses. In contrast with the appearances in this feature we see the inner landscape of the character, regardless of how they are dressed up with personality on the exterior. In the story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, Ni Kan the protagonist was a very pessimist little kid, but all the backstory such as where she came from, her mom´s memories, al the dashed dreams that have left her with resentments and insecurities of herself, her fears of failing and her mother´s pressure gives the reader a reason to understand her actions and trauma. An inner landscape allows the reader to understand what the character is going through, which is the key to provoking empathy. Empathy is a great trait most stories should have because the more of it the reader feels, the more they’ll read and enjoy

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