Call Me Ishmael—Introducing a Character.......................................

Lecture 5

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characters are different from real people and from each other, but in this
lecture, we’ll talk about what all characters have in common—primarily,
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narration, (4) through report by other characters, and (5) by placing the
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Straightforward Description
z Perhaps the most straightforward way to introduce a character is to
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from Joseph Conrad’s /RUG-LP:

He was an inch, perhaps two, under six feet, powerfully built,

and he advanced straight at you with a slight stoop of the

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made you think of a charging bull. His voice was deep, loud,

and his manner displayed a kind of dogged self-assertion

which had nothing aggressive in it. ... He was spotlessly

neat, appareled in immaculate white from shoes to hat, and

in the various Eastern ports where he got his living as a ship-

chandler’s water-clerk he was very popular. (p. 1)

z Here, the main character comes right off the page at the reader; we see
him vividly and whole. This introduction is compelling and intriguing:
Here’s an attractive character who also has a bit of mystery about him.
In addition, the introduction sums up the main character in a nutshell:
He has something to prove to himself, and the rest of the book shows
why that’s so and how he goes about it.