In Character: Ken Follett’s World Without End and an Analysis of Character in Literature

Last night I said farewell to old friends. I left them where they were and walked down the dirt road that led through town. I passed through the heavy gates that protected the city. I walked over the bridge, the centerpiece of my friends’ lives, and out of the Middle Ages, back into 2008 and the busy paved street that led to my house with indoor plumbing, central heat and air, and a great big comfy reading chair. I closed my book, placed it on the table beside me and sat silently for a few minutes, grieving. I had just finished Ken Follett’s historical fiction novel World Without End.

After nine hundred and twenty-seven pages, I had become attached to a cast of fascinating people. In the best novels, we are deliciously tricked into believing that when we close the cover, life between the pages goes on without us. How can characters so vivid just disappear into thin air when the book is closed? Therein likes the writer’s craft. Character Basics

Unlocking the character code can be a tool for critiquing literature. A character is born where speech, appearance, and action come together around a name. A characterization is the process by which the writer makes the character seem real to the reader. The protagonist, a hero or heroine, is the character with whom we become most deeply involved. The antagonist is the character that parallels or opposes the protagonist, providing the conflict in the story. A character that does not change through the text is a static character. A dynamic character does go through change as a result of the action in the plot. A flat character is one that has one or two simple qualities or traits and is not psychologically complex. Sometimes flat characters are called “stock characters.” These can be easily summarized, and are more a “type” than an individual.

Characters that are more complex and fully developed are round characters or dramatized characters. Round characters generally are consistent in action and reaction, and plausibly motivated. Writers may use direct presentation to tell the reader by exposition or analysis about the character. Writers also use indirect presentation, showing the character in action and letting the reader infer the character’s qualities. Traditionally, readers explore characters on a personal level. In other words, a reader asks, “What kind of person is this character? Is she a person I’d like to know?”

A reader might also try to figure out why the character behaves as she does, or compare the character’s action with what we would do in a similar situation. In order for a reader to become involved with a character on a personal level, we make a few assumptions about literary characters •• The character is motivated from within to act •• The character is responsible for their own actions •• The character is unique and responds in personal ways •• The character is can be judged by comparing thoughts with actions.

A personal approach to reading characters implies that the character is morally accountable for her actions in the same way a real person is judged accountable. As with contextual readings based on social customs, character readings based on social customs may reinforce the prevailing set of values and discount new, different, or novel beliefs and practices.

Characters as Signs

Another way to interpret characters is to see them as signs or devices that represent values in the text. In fiction, characters can be used to open up or explore aspects of human experience, or to illustrate a trait of human behavior. A symbol is something that stands not only for itself, but also for an abstract idea, belief, or quality. Conventional symbols are ones that are widely accepted and used by writers. Some symbolic characters are consistent throughout the text, but others gather new meaning throughout the text.

An archetype is a universal symbol or prototype that evokes response in a reader, sometimes unconsciously. An archetype symbolizes basic human experiences, regardless of time and place. Conventional archetypes include •• the “great mother” •• the “wise old man” •• the “trickster” •• the “scarlet woman” •• the “faceless man.” •• the “artist-scientist”

Example: The Symbolism of the “Artist-Scientist”

One archetype is that of the “artist-scientist.” The artist-scientist is a builder, an inventor, a seeker or dreamer, and a thinker. They may be so caught up in their own thoughts, they often must be reminded to eat or sleep, or come in out of the rain. They are both highly knowledgeable and innocent. They represent the wonder and the danger of curiosity.

The artist-scientist is an agent of change. This archetype character might spend hours concocting elaborate plans to reach the tower of the castle to rescue the princess, while the hero simply walks in the front door and up the stairs, scoops up the damsel and rides off into the sunset. The artist-scientist has an idealized view of reality. As a failure, the artist-scientists may symbolize the futility of trying to control one’s own fate. If successful, the artist-scientists can symbolize the idea that you can’t stop a dreamer from trying to change the world. Frequently naïve, the artist-scientist can also symbolize a gap between knowledge and fact.

Application:   The Artist-Scientist in World Without End

In Follett’s historical novel World Without End, the characters were vivid and detailed. His research was thorough, and he effectively used indirect presentation to flesh out the characters, which behaved, thought, and spoke in keeping with the historical period. The character Murthin is an example of the artist-scientist archetype. He’s of noble birth, but forced by poverty to become a builder. Since little science and engineering was known in those days, Murthin had to excel as an engineer, an architect, and a physicist.

When faced with a problem, Murthin never failed to invent or create something that solves it. In particular, Murthin designed a bridge to replace one that failed. Murthin studied the problems with the old bridge, and came up with new technologies to solve them. Superstition and religion are at cross purposes with Murthin’s science and Murthin mirrors the medieval trend from church rule to secular rule.

 To the townspeople, Murthin’s methods are strange and untried, and Murthin is faced with constant efforts to thwart his plan. Murthin represents the science side of the science-religion debate. He is determined, logical, and tolerant of new ideas. He is so persistent, that the changes he wants to bring to the town seem inevitable, like the proverbial progress that is said to be unstoppable.

By refusing to work with mindless adherence to the past, Murthin represents the idea that knowledge isn’t finite, that all there is to know is not already known. For Murthin, knowledge as dynamic rather than static, and mere mortals are capable of moving knowledge forward. Murthin literally and figuratively builds, stone by stone, the foundation for the village’s inevitable crossing into an uncertain future.

Bibliography

Schema (psychology); http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schema_(psychology)

Glossary of Literary Terms, Mayer Literature

http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/literature/bedlit/glossary_p.htm#top

 PAL: Perspectives in American Literature – A Research and Reference Guide – An Ongoing Project, Paul P. Reuben http://web.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/append/AXG.HTML

Literary Archetypes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Literary_archetypes

Schema Theory: An Introduction, Sharon Alayne Widmayer, George Mason University, http://www2.yk.psu.edu/~jlg18/506/SchemaTheory.pdf

A Glossary of Literary Criticism http://www.sil.org/~radneyr/humanities/litcrit/gloss.htm Anatomy of Literary Criticism, Frye, Northrop 1957.

http://www.sil.org/~radneyr/humanities/litcrit/anacrit.htm

Follett, Ken, World Without End, 

 New York, Penguin Group. Moon, Brian, Literary Terms,

The NCTE Chalkface Series, 1999 Segal, Robert Alan; Jung, C. G. (1998). On mythology, Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01736-0  

Great Resources for Internet Safety

The Internet opens new horizons for any student.  But its vastness is also its pitfall.  Children need guidance about how to analyze information they find on the Internet, how to determine for themselves whether information is valid or junk.  Supervise your child’s Internet activities.  For very young children, it’s better to only go to websites you have pre-approved.  Another guideline is to use the .com, .org, .net, and.edu codes.  For students, .org and .edu are probably the most reliable for research purposes because they represent non-profit institutions and educational sites.

 Just Think is a website devoted to media literacy for children.  It has helpful information about teaching kids to analyze the validity of information they see on line.  There is even a quiz to measure your media literacy.   http://www.justthink.org/

 Wired Kids, Inc has a great website with information for kids, tweens, teens, parents and educators.  It’s a colorful, fun to use site. http://www.wiredkids.org/wiredkids_org.html

Point Smart.  Click Save. is another great website for educators and parents to learn about Internet safety. 

 http://www.pointsmartclicksafe.org/ 

 

 

There is software available for parents to block specific websites or categories of websites from children.

Some links to such software are:

Sudden Link   ttp://www.suddenlink.com/netsafety/  http://www.suddenlink.com/netsafety/

Media Com  http://www.mediacomcc.com/home.html

Get wise Now  http://www.getnetwise.org/ 

 

Other Internet Safety and Privacy Resources

 

• FTC’s website for kids on privacy issues     http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/kidzprivacy/
• FBI’s guide for parents on Internet safety     http://www.fbi.gov/publications/pguide/pguide.htm

• i-safe makes curriculum material for parents and schools on Internet safety issues.     http://www.isafe.org/channels/?ch=ai

• i-safe and My Space have a series of videos that teach about safety and social networks     http://www.ikeepsafe.org/PRC/videotutorials/myspace/index.html
• Safe Teensprovides lots of information about Internet safety, privacy protection, social networks and blogging.     http://www.safeteens.com

 

 

 

 

Tips for Teens on the Internet

   The Common Sense website has tons of information on internet safety.  Here is a list that they suggest you print and hang near your computer to give your child rules for internet use   http://www.commonsense.com/internet-safety-tips

Internet Survival Tips for Kids and Teens

1. Never give any personal information to anyone you meet online. That means first or last names, phone numbers (they can be used to track down you home), passwords, birth dates or years, or credit card information.
2. Never meet up with anyone you don’t already know. Don’t tell anyone your schedule; don’t say where you’ll be hanging out. No party announcements. People are often not who they say they are. It’s true: 1 in 5 kids will be sexually solicited online.
3. Don’t fill out any “fun” questionnaires that are forwarded to you, even if they’re from your friends. Remember, you’re in a world where everything can get forwarded. All those personal things about you could land in the hands of someone who could use them to harm you.
4. Make sure you know everyone on your buddy list. If you haven’t met the people face-to-face, they may not be who they pretend to be. Also, Instant Messaging strangers is an invasion of their privacy.
5. You do not have to answer emails or IMs from people you don’t know. As a matter of fact, you shouldn’t. Who knows who they are? Even if they say they’re “David’s friend,” David could be a lucky guess. “Kids” you meet in chat rooms may actually be creepy adults.
6. There’s no such thing as “private” on the Internet. You may think so, but it’s not true. People can find anything they want — and keep what you post — forever.
7. Be careful about posting pictures of yourself (if you must, don’t post sexy ones or ones showing behavior you wouldn’t want your mom, teacher, boss, or potential college advisor to see). Just because an older sibling has posted snaps on a site doesn’t make it a smart or a safe idea. Pictures with identifiers like where you go to school can be shopping lists for online predators and other creeps.
8. Don’t send pictures of other people. Forwarding an embarrassing picture of someone else is a form of bullying. How would you like it if someone did that to you?
9. Don’t download content without your parents’ permission. Many sites have spyware that will damage your computer. Other sites have really inappropriate content. Your parents can check your computer’s URL history, so you can’t hide where you’ve been.
10. Never share your password with anyone but your parents.

Extracurricular Activities–Part I

Ever feel like your kid is the next teen superstar de jour and you are his chauffeur, personal assistant and agent all in one?  I’m talking about the entire universe of extracurricular activities.  You know what I’m talking about:  the car time spent shuttling back and forth, the checks written every month, the time researching and checking out programs and teachers and coaches.  For most families with school-aged children, this represents a significant chunk of time.  With such an investment, it must be doing some good, right?  Well, maybe.

Now that it’s the norm for families to be of the “two-careers” variety the role of the after-school activity has changed.  For elementary students especially, aftercare programs offered by schools are a necessity and to a certain extent, are babysitting.  Everybody knows this, but no one really likes to admit it aloud.  After all, we take parenting pride in exposing our kids to the latest and greatest enrichment activities.  If it’s at school and costs money,  it’s no wonder we expect more bang for our buck than a babysitter can deliver.  After care kids have a great opportunity to blow of some steam, stay productively busy, and get their homework done so they don’t have to do it at home.  But, there is a significant difference between after-care and a genuine enriching extracurricular activity.     

Your children understand that difference.  My son took a martial art class in an afterschool program at school when he was younger.  I thought he loved martial arts, but he never seemed excited about this class.  He complained about the large class size and the kids who needed to blow off steam after school and weren’t able to focus on training.  The regular and frequent belt promotions bothered him too, because he could see that earning a new belt didn’t really require much.  Of course, I assumed he just wasn’t interested in martial arts after all.  So, a few years later when he expressed interest in Aikido, I was skeptical.

Today, he spends about six hours per week at the dojo and trains with several instructors.  This is the serious kind of training he wanted but didn’t get in the after-care program.  He takes pride in what he is accomplishing both physically and mentally.  He respects his senior dojo-mates, and has earned their respect as well

This is what my son has gained from this after-school experience:

1.      Mastering an art takes serious focus and serious training.

2.      People who master an art and can teach it to others should be respected for their accomplishment.

3.      When you master an art, you have an obligation to help those in training.

4.      You never really become a master.  You can always improve.

5.      Mental focus is as important as the physical abilities.

6.      Striving for your personal best is sometimes more difficult than competing against others.

7.      Rewards come only after significant effort and training. 

Now, don’t get me wrong.  The martial-way of my son hasn’t been without its drawbacks.  He has become quite inscrutable.  For instance, when he had to sit in  with a class at our local school to take the state achievement tests one spring, one little boy asked him what kind of stuff he learns at home school.  My son told him he learns Japanese.  The kid wanted proof, so my son gave it to him–in Japanese.  “What does that mean?” asked the other kid.  “It means ‘Even monkeys fall from trees’ “answered my son.  I will reveal my liberal-white angst by telling you that I was mortified when my son told me this because the little boy he told this to was African-American.  I couldn’t imagine what that little boy’s mom or dad thought when they learned that some little white boy came to school and called him a “monkey.”   The inscrutible meaning of the comment is that even masters make mistakes and that no one is perfect.  I can only hope that the parents of little boy didn’t interpret my son’s inscrutable comment as a racial slur.

Still, the experience with aikido has been overwhelmingly positive, though not because aikido is so cool, or that my son is really good at it.  It’s because of the people who make up the dojo.  They are at one time artists, athletes, scholars, teachers, and role-models.  Learning from them is a true enriching experience.

As desirable as an enrichment activity is for your child, it is possible to overload a child with extracurricular activities.  I suggest narrowing these down to two at a time.

Stay tuned for more ideas for more ideas for making the most of your child’s extracurricular activities.

Writing Handbook for Kids

Aren’t we supposed to learn from our mistakes?  If you are faced with proofreading your child’s homework assignments, it can be frustrating to see them make the same mistakes over and over.  “How many times do I have to tell you?  The comma goes inside the quotation marks.”  or “‘Too’ means more than you need.  ‘Two’ means the number.”

To help your child learn from their mistakes, have your child keep a writing handbook.  Use a spiral notebook or journal with a sturdy cover.  Your child should keep the handbook where they usually study or do homework.  When you look over their work, if they are making a grammatical, style, punctuation, or spelling error, teach them the rule.  Then, have them write the rule in their handbook.  From here on out, tell them they are responsible for using the rule correctly.  If your child makes a number of different mistakes, it’s better to focus on one or two rules rather than marking the paper up with corrections.  The important thing is that the child learn the writing rule, not produce perfect papers. 

If they make the same mistake again, don’t give them the rule again, but refer them to their handbook.  For rules that are particularly troublesome for your child, have them write the rule on an index card and tape it to the wall where they study. 

To be good learners, children need to know when to ask for help and where to get it.  When they know the writing rules they are responsible for using are as handy as their spiral notebook, they will gain confidence in their growing ability to write well.  They can relax and be creative without worrying about making lots of “red-ink” errors. 

The writing handbook can be used for all subjects, not just writing class.  If there is a research paper due in history or science, use the handbook for writing down and referring to rules.  This shows your child  how the different subjects they study are all related.  Additionally, it helps them understand that written communication is a necessary skill in all subjects.  Keeping a writing handbook shows the child how to be proactive learners, taking responsibility for improving their writing in a way that goes beyond the bounds of their work assignments at school.

If you are unsure about spelling or grammar rules, teach your child to use the dictionary or a style book.  Show your child how to look up a word in the dictionary, or to use an onling dictionary.  If you can’t get close enough to the correct spelling to locate the work in the dictionary, pick a similar word that you know how to spell and look it up in a Thesaurus.   For grammar rules, Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style is a definitive source.  Or, you can use a writing reference book like Write Source: A Book for Writing, Thinking, and Learning by Dave Kemper, Patrick Sebranek, and Verne Meyer from Great Source Education Group.  Don’t be intimidated if you don’t know something.  You and your child can figure it out together.  Don’t forget–you’re teaching your child to learn, and watching you learn is a great way to teach them.