Character Development in Fiction

Character #3:The Indirect Methods of Character Trait Development

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These methods are called "indirect" because readers do not interpret or form an opinion about the characters from direct evidence.  In Indirect Methods, the narrator or other characters in the narrative comment on the character in question; readers either accept that analysis or not, depending on whether readers believe the comment.  Readers, then, can only accept or reject the opinions of the narrator or other characters.   Because of this, Indirect Methods are not as powerful or as accurate as Direct Methods.

Of course, comments made by the author are normally accepted as true without questions by all readers (though they may not be so).

All examples here are from Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey. Project Gutenberg E-Text prepared by Bill Brewer *

Author Interpretation

Perhaps the easiest way for an author to communicate a character's personality is to just say so. "Juan Ibarra was a kindly gentleman." This allows the reader to know everything, exactly, even how the reader should feel about the characters. There are weaknesses in this method, though. The "telling" involved results in chunks of description that stop the story dead. For this reason, this method is often used primarily at the beginning of stories and novels.

Here’s an example from the second paragraph of Zane Grey's novel.

"Jane Withersteen gazed down the wide purple slope with dreamy and troubled eyes. A rider had just left her and it was his message that held her thoughtful and almost sad, awaiting the churchmen who were coming to resent and attack her right to befriend a Gentile." *

Here, Zane Grey flatly states what Jane is thinking: she is "troubled." The readers do not need to figure that fact out from an interpretation of the text. It is clearly stated. Realize that this method is called "indirect" because, for you to believe she is "troubled," you must believe the writer is telling you the "truth" about Jane (and not lying to you). In some novels, the narrator does lie!

Character Interpretation

Often, the writer develops characters through the statements and actions of other characters. This is similar to real life, where people often analyze and evaluate the actions, speech, and appearance of others.

In this final example, notice how Zane Grey describes the mysterious rider from Jane’s perspective, so the audience not only views appearance, but also Jane’s interpretations of the man.

"Jane, greeting him, looked up into a face that she trusted instinctively and which riveted her attention. It had all the characteristics of the range rider's--the leanness, the red burn of the sun, and the set changelessness that came from years of silence and solitude. But it was not these which held her, rather the intensity of his gaze, a strained weariness, a piercing wistfulness of keen, gray sight, as if the man was forever looking for that which he never found. Jane's subtle woman's intuition, even in that brief instant, felt a sadness, a hungering, a secret." *

The reader gets the sense, from this quote, that Jane trusts the rider. There is no fear. Since the characters share the fantasy world of the novel, there is a sense (since Jane is the protagonist) that her "intuition" is credible and valid -- she's right about the rider.

This is the value of interpretations by other characters in the story.

Sources

* Grey, Zane. Riders of the Purple Sage. Project Gutenberg E-Text/"Project Gutenberg Association / Carnegie-Mellon University." <http://www.promo.net/pg/index.html>

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