Chris Sutterfield

American Literature

Paper 4

Character Analysis Assignment

Choose a character from Alice Walker’s Everyday Use. Consider the character's appearance, behavior, words, interactions with other characters, and other elements that contribute to the development of the character. Your paper should not be a general description of the character but a focused analysis that presents a clear argument about the character and his or her significance in the story. For example, you might focus on a particular character’s understanding of heritage (the story’s main theme) in relation to another. Use examples from the text to support your argument. Avoid excessive plot summary. Some possibilities for focusing your analysis include:

  • Consider the character at the moment he or she must make an important decision. How did he or she come to this crisis? What are the options? What decision does the character make? What does that decision reveal about the character?
  • Analyze the character's relationship with another character? What does the relationship reveal about him or her? How is the relationship significant to the rest of the play?
  • What is the character's most important trait? How does this trait shape the character as a whole? How does the character demonstrate this trait? How does this trait affect his or her interaction with other characters?
  • Does the character change over the course of the story? How is the character different at the end of the story than at the beginning? What brings about this change? Is the change sudden or gradual? If the character does not change, what does this reveal about him or her?

Requirements:

  • Your paper should be 3-4 pages long, typed, double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman Font.
  • Underline your thesis statement.
  • Keep Paper in Present Tense.
  • A Works-Cited Page
  • Use In-Text Citations

 

General Outline:

Character Analysis Paper

 

  1. Your introductory paragraph in this essay must include:
  • "title of story," author, subject matter
  • indication of the story’s central theme
  • brief plot summary, including outcome
  • clear and direct statement of central idea
  • thesis statement that directly mentions the essay's key element


In this essay you must include these components:

  • specific indication of central character's key trait at the beginning
  • plot events that demonstrate the beginning key trait
  • some general indication of the main problem, the climax, and the outcome
  • specific statement that character is static or dynamic, with specific evidence from the end of the story
  1. The second paragraph of the sample essay introduces the character at the beginning of the story, shows some of his behaviors, and establishes his key trait.
  2. The third paragraph of the essay shows the relationship between the character's key trait and his general problem. Plot details are used to show the character's key trait in action, illustrating how the key trait motivates the character's actions.
  3. The fourth paragraph of the essay discusses the escalation of the problem, the climax, and the outcome. The static nature of the character, as introduced in the thesis, is reaffirmed, and specific evidence from the end of the story is provided as support.
  4. The conclusion restates the central conflict and reiterates the lack of change in the character. The central idea is restated, and the essay ends with a speculation about the character's future.

 

Sample– Character Analysis

Mama’s Understanding of Heritage in

Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”

 

Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” presents a relationship between a mother and her two daughters that symbolizes the conflict of generations on the ground of incompatibility of values. In this story, a daughter visits her mother and as it unfolds, we see the mother being gradually annoyed with her older daughter’s superficiality, which causes her to favor more her younger daughter, Maggie. Thus, Walker uses Mama’s annoyance with Dee’s superficiality to suggest that Mama has as a more profound understanding of her cultural heritage than her older and more “educated” daughter.

CAUTION: If you attempt to write a character analysis essay be absolutely sure that you do NOT fall into summarizing the play by ALWAYS explaining each reference in the story and each quotation.  That means having an idea for each paragraph, preferably stated in a topic sentence, and relating each incident and quotation mentioned in the paragraph to that idea.