Question:
How do you describe a character?
I'm supposed to do research on certain characters in fiction (movies, tv,m books)
Any suggestions on how to describe them and their thoughts, emotions?
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
First collect all evidence possible.
Evidence are facts from the work you're dealing with
what can count for evidence is
What the character does (The character's actions)
What the character says or thinks (The character's words)
How the character looks (In fiction, you need to judge the book by its cover because the characters were designed by someone)
How other characters treat or respond to this character. (You can't always trust the character to accurately portray itself so you must rely on those who know the character best, its fellow characters)
After you have the evidence, organize it and think about what each of these things tell you about the character. Jot them down, this will come handy in the analysis part.
Then brainstorm a list of characteristics for the character. Characteristics are personality traits such as mean, nice, creative, evil, manipulative, naive, etc.
Then put all this information into paragraphs. For beginning writers, i suggest a simple guidline.
Name the characteristic, provide evidence and then provide analysis. Repeat (providing more than one evidence and analysis for a characteristic help strenghten your argument)
Extremely simple do not copy but try to understand the concept example:
Sarah is mean (characteristic). She stole her brother's lunch (evidence). Stealing is generally a bad thing to do but to steal from one's own family member especially a little brother who needs that lunch to survive the math test is a very mean thing to do (analysis)
To go beyond the basics.
Consider the character's actions -- is it making a commentary on the real world?
Notice the narrator's description of the character and the character's own actions and words -- is there sarcasm? irony?
Consider the character's actions/words -- is s/he logical? responsible? good? This forces you to judge the character.
Consider motivation -- Why is this character doing what s/he does? (Stealing bread for fun is different from steaing bread to feed a family)
----
I am a high school english teacher