Self-Assessment: Answers for Character Type

1. Identify the type of character Harriet or Frankie is.  Is he or she flat or round?  Static or developing-dynamic?  

• Harriet is a round, developing-dynamic character because she undergoes a change from immaturity to maturity.

• Frankie is a round, developing-dynamic character because, initially, his actions are irresponsible, but when he and his friends are in danger, he knows what to do.  

1. Identify the plot events that enable him or her to see his or her parents differently.

• She wonders why her parents were behaving as teenagers when she sees them smiling at each other.
• Harriet’s mother talks to her in a voice Harriet “did not recognize”.
• Her parents begin to sing.
• Her parents are holding hands.
• She realizes her parents have been reliving their first date to celebrate their anniversary.
• She realizes they were happy before she was born.

 

• On his birthday, when Frankie’s father surprises him with a quad rather than making him do chores, Frankie was pleasantly surprised and excited.
• He knew his father would be angry about the quad going in the lake.  He knew his father would be especially crazy because the quad was new.
• He wondered if his father would be thankful that he survived.
• He knew his home would be warm and he would be welcomed, despite his error in judgement.
• His parents were not as angry as he thought they would be.
• His father makes him take responsibility for his actions by telling him he has to pay for the quad.

1. Provide five examples of dialogue or action in which the author has created Harriet’s or Frankie’s voice.  What character traits are developed through the author’s use of voice?

1. Harriet “demands” to know where they are going and “bounces” in the car. 
   
2. She “glowers” at her parents and wonders why they are “behaving like teenagers”. 
   
3. She begs to go to McDonald’s, but when they go to a Japanese restaurant, she tells them she “hates everything on the menu” and then sneaks a few bites but will not admit the food is delicious. 
   
4. When asked if she wants dessert, she does not look at her father and says, “Whatever.”  She “slurps her Coke”. 
   
5. When they are in the car returning home, she begins to complain. 
   
6. She ducks her head and cannot face the stodgy sullen girl in the mirror. The author shows that Harriet is young girl who is initially immature, stubborn, childish, and self-centred, but she grows and matures by the end of the story.

 

1. Frankie wondered why his father was making him work on his birthday, his one special day of the year.
2. He ran immediately to the house and called his friends.
   
3. Those sixty minutes dragged by like they were never going to end.
   
4. “Ha!”  Frankie laughed.  “From now on, you guys are never gonna beat me!”
   
5. “Are you chicken or something?  Afraid I’m going to beat you again?”
   
6. Frankie gunned his quad.
   
7. Frankie’s dad would be especially crazy.
   
8. “C’mon guys.  We’d better get going before it gets too dark.” 
9. The author shows that Frankie is a teenager, a risk-taker who likes excitement and adventure, but when he is in danger, he acts responsibly and knows what to do in an emergency.