The Importance Of Characterization In The Scarlet Ibis
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Can you imagine a story without characters? It seems strange because a character is one of the most important elements in a story, but the way that authors use to convey information about characters in a story is known as characterization. Characterization can simply be defined as the way which the writer uses to reveal the personality or nature of a character and it moves the plot in the story. The writer can describe characters in two different ways even by direct characterization or indirect characterization. There are many ways to reveal a character. For example, the writer can reveal the character by his or her thoughts, describing the physical appearance of him or her, actions, speech or by showing how other characters react or think…show more content… In fact, the two characters, the narrator and his brother “Doodle” are very important in bringing out the theme because without them, nothing would have happened in the story. However, characterization revealed many things about the narrator and Doodle in this story. The narrator described his brother Doodle when he was born as he said “he seemed all head, with tiny body which was red and shriveled like an old man`s ” and “it was as if he had no bones in his little legs.” so, these descriptions show us that Doodle was physically weak because he was ill and invalid which means disabled. The actions of the narrator revealed a lot about his character. For example, when he tried to kill his brother with a pillow, it showed us how mean he is. In addition, when the narrator took Doodle up to the barn loft and showed him his casket ,as they all thought he would die, and told him “and before I’ll help you down from the loft, you`re going to have to touch it”, that also shows how badly he dealt with and frightened him. The attempts of the narrator in trying to make his brother “Doodle” walk revealed his pride which overcome his love of his brother and led to his death at the end when he left him alone in the storm. These actions of the narrator revealed that he was ashamed of having a five year old brother who couldn’t walk, but he felt guilty at the end and this is revealed when he said “for a long time, it seemed forever, I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis from the heresy of the