Lesson 28 — Activity 1: Characters in the Novel



The novel The Lie that Had to Be had many characters in it, but certain people had much more important roles in the story than others.

Below is a review from Theme 2 of the different types of characters we may find in fictional stories.
This activity will review the types of characters found in fiction.
Image courtesy of www.pixabay.com

The protagonist is the main character in a story (often the "hero").
The antagonist is the character or characters in a story who are in conflict with the protagonist. (Sometimes the antagonist is a force against the protagonist.)

A round character is a character who is quite well-described; it is a character we know a lot about.
A dynamic character is a character who changes in some way during the story.

A flat character is a character who we know very little about.
A static character is a character who remains the same throughout the story.

A stock character is a character who is a stereotype. It is a character that we are very familiar with from seeing similar characters in other stories and movies (for example, the handsome prince in fairy tales).

The characterizations described above are represented in the different characters from the fairy tale Cinderella shown below.

Cinderella is the protagonist and the wicked stepmother and stepsisters are the antagonists.

Cinderella
Image courtesy of www.pixabay.com
The main character, Cinderella, may be called a round, dynamic character as we learn a lot about her throughout the story and she changes throughout it, from a girl who has nothing to a young woman who gets everything she's always dreamed of!
The wicked stepmother may be called a flat, static character. We really only learn that she is very mean and note that she remains mean throughout the story.

This image shows the stepmother from Cinderella.
 “20130216-IMG_6638”, by Rain0975, is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.
The prince may be called a stock character. He represents the person who comes to the rescue of the damsel in distress.

The prince also represents the "good guy" character found in stories.
  Prince Charming” is licensed under CC0 1.0.
Images courtesy of www.imagesgoogle.com