Characterization

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Characterization – noun – a description of the distinctive nature or features of someone or something.

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I’m reading The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. I don’t read a lot of biographies, and although I’ve only finished a few chapters so far in this one, I so enjoyed the setup to Roosevelt’s character in the prologue that I thought it would be a good topic for TKZ.

The prologue is set on January 1, 1907 when thousands of people are waiting patiently in line to enter the White House to shake the president’s hand and wish him a Happy New Year.

Through the description of that New Year’s Day, Morris alternates between the story of the crowd inching its way toward the White House doors, and descriptions of Roosevelt’s behavior, personality, and impact on others.

Take this example:

“Roosevelt may be the fastest handshaker in history (he averages fifty grips a minute), but he is also the most conscientious, insisting that all citizens who are sober, washed, and free of bodily advertising be permitted to wish the President of the United States a Happy New Year.”

The author gives us a good look at the crowd, the weather, and the overall state of the nation’s wealth. He enjoys using quotes from Roosevelt’s friends and others to help us define the man, as in this quote from Joseph G. Cannon, the Speaker of the House.

“Roosevelt’s all right,” says Cannon, “but he’s got no more use for the Constitution than a tomcat has for a marriage license.”

Others were quoted as calling him a “faker and a humbug.” No less a personage than Woodrow Wilson said, “He is the most dangerous man of the age,” and Mark Twain declared Roosevelt to be “insane.”

On the other hand, one veteran politician noted that Roosevelt had “unquestionably the greatest gift of personal magnetism ever possessed by an American.”

Such diverse statements interwoven with evidence of Roosevelt’s popularity and his delight in the job of the presidency give us a three-dimensional person who is so much more than the textbook president who created national parks, succeeded in getting the Panama Canal built, and had the Teddy Bear named after him.

As the crowd snakes its way into the room where Roosevelt is greeting them, Morris describes the president’s physical impact on the visitors. He quotes English statesman John Morley as saying, “Do you know the two most wonderful things I have seen in your country? Niagara Falls and the President of the United States.”

Although Roosevelt is often remembered for his pugnacity, it was his diplomacy in brokering a peace between Russia and Japan that earned him the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the first American to win a Nobel Prize.

And Theodore Roosevelt endeared himself to me by this statement: “Reading with me is a disease.” He managed to read at least one book a day. His interests varied widely, and he was himself an author.

After pages of defining the man by his behavior and the opinions of others, Morris finally gets down to specifics about Roosevelt’s appearance.

“Were it not for his high brow, and the distracting brilliance of his smile, Roosevelt would unquestionably be an ugly man.”

Morris then dedicates several long paragraphs to that dazzling grin that was so famous “that envelopes ornamented only with teeth and spectacles are routinely delivered to the White House.”

And he doesn’t stop there. Speaking of Roosevelt’s “white and even” teeth

“… they chop every word into neat syllables, sending them forth perfectly formed but separate, in a jerky staccatissimo that has no relation to the normal rhythms of speech… His very voice seems to rasp out of the tips of his teeth.”

A colleague of Roosevelt’s described its effect. “I always think of a man biting tenpenny nails when I think of Roosevelt making a speech.”

The nuance continues through the long prologue giving us a 360-degree view of the optimism, energy, love of power, and determination of our twenty-sixth president as he drives through life full speed ahead.

Only at the start of Chapter One does Morris back up and begin to tell the history of the man.

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Theodore Roosevelt was a larger-than-life historical figure, so describing the many dimensions of his personality may not be surprising. But reading Morris’s work has made me put some thought into descriptions of characters in my own writing. Direct and indirect characterization can be powerful tools to round out characters and give the reader an entertaining story.

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So TKZers: How do you describe your main characters? Physical description, speech, behavior, opinions of others? How much time and nuance to you put into your characters?

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Note: Once again, I’ll be traveling between old and new homes as we try to finalize this (very long) move. I’ll respond to comments as soon as I can.

 

Another Side of Sunshine

“The story excels at honoring the emotional realities of childhood without veering into sentimentality. It’s a smart, well-constructed mystery that values relationships over rivalry, process over prizes, and growth over glory. Fans of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and The Westing Game will find familiar pleasures here, wrapped in fresh clues and grounded by a heroine who learns to trust her instincts—and the people around her.” —Prairie Book Reviews

Click the image to go to the Amazon book page.

20 thoughts on “Characterization”

  1. Thanks for sharing this. One of my goals is to read a biography on each of the presidents so I’ll check this one out. I’ll be curious to hear your assessment when you finish the book. The trick about biography, especially in the political realm, is finding an author who does an objective job of writing it.

    I also want to dig more into the time of the Rough Riders (1898) among other things on Roosevelt.

    The half-hour western Bordertown from the late 1980’s did an interesting episode featuring Teddy Roosevelt which always made me want to dig in & learn more.

    As to describing main characters, my weakness is often forgetting physical description but tend to draw them out more in their actions & not only others’ opinions but their own scene to scene.

    • Brenda, “As to describing main characters, my weakness is often forgetting physical description but tend to draw them out more in their actions & not only others’ opinions but their own scene to scene.” is not a weakness!
      Readers like to decide for themselves what a character’s appearance looks like. 🙂

    • Good morning, Brenda.

      I don’t like to read political biographies because they’re often so biased, but I’m enjoying this one. I’ll let you know when I finish. (That is: if I finish. This move has seriously diminished my time for reading!)

      I do recall that Jane Austen doesn’t describe the physical looks of her characters, yet we all imagine what Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley look like.

  2. Q1: How do you describe your main characters? Physical description,
    speech, behavior, opinions of others?
    A1: All of the above. See below.
    Q2: How much time and nuance to you put into your characters?
    A2: The appended snippets of “Olivia’s Story” demonstrate some of my efforts at bringing her great-uncle Jedediah to life.

    “Jedediah served in the Civil War on [the Confederate] side, and even at 89, still stood like a soldier, wiry and tall….
    “I had never seen anyone intoxicated until a day one February when Uncle Jed staggered out of his quarters and plunked himself down at the dinner table, reeking of muscatel and grinning like a jackass eating thistles….
    “Sometimes, if I woke late at night, I could hear him talking to himself in his room. The words were always indistinct. Often, he’d moan or shout….
    “His vocabulary was colorful, looked at from one point of view, and vulgar, when looked at from any other. For extreme epithet or insult, he held in reserve the most scatological term in his entire vocabulary: “Yankee.”
    “Jedediah had little in the way of social graces. He would pass gas frequently, then, worse yet, call attention to it. “Oh, my stars! I swow, that was a hum-dinger!” He’d take off his hat, if he had one on, and wave it vigorously, not so much dissipating the stench as spreading it. “Whoo-eee, that reeks…!”
    “Jed rarely attended church, for which fact I’m sure the pastor and his flock were grateful. I know my family surely were. Jedediah’s ability to carry a tune had apparently been shot off at Fort Henry or perhaps Shiloh. He still had the stentorian voice of a young and hearty man, but seldom knew the lyrics beyond the first verse. After that, his voice loud as ever, he’d improvise with words and notes of his own devising. For example, the rest of the congregation singing Amazing Grace were always startled to hear after the first verse that “. . . ‘Twas grapes that taught my heart to fear, and grapes my fears relieved.’”

      • Among Jedediah’s effects, Olivia finds several of the first sort of “grapes,” lead balls a little smaller than a quail’s egg. When fired in dozens from a cannon, these certainly inspired fear. There’s irony in the verse from “Amazing Grace” applying to both types of grape in Jed’s life, past and present.

  3. Good questions, Kay. Characters are the lifeblood of fiction for me.

    In order of priority:
    1. Dialogue
    2. Actions/behavior
    3. What others say or think about them
    4. Physical description – this matters the least b/c if they’re developed enough with the first three qualities, the reader should have a partial image in their mind.

    I esp. like what other characters say or think about them b/c those impressions can be great contrasts with the true character. Misinterpretation and misunderstanding lead to conflict and confrontation.

    One other addition to build character: give them a secret they don’t want others to know about.

    • Good morning, Debbie.

      I like your priority list. Also, having characters remark about each other is a wonderful way to bring in the characterization and conflict.

  4. I struggle with inserting physical descriptions, not being a visual person myself. My line editor frequently asked me to add character description when I’d failed to include any, especially with secondary characters. I usually have other characters think about how the character looks. In my goat whisperer girl book, her smudged face, clothes already dirty with bits of manure, feed, and mud, Hen’s physical appearance is important because it shows she’s not the typical Amish woman and leans itself to the conflict with her family because she doesn’t toe the line. I love authors who come up with delightful, creative ways of describing characters. I’m not great at it. As for who the character is when you get past the skin deep, that comes out in their actions, dialogue, and their thoughts, as well as that of other characters.

    • Good morning, Kelly.

      I think the physical description may be the least important unless it provides background for their actions and personality. I like your idea to describe some of the girl’s messiness as a contrast with her community.

  5. I let other characters do the describing of appearance and a lot of times, character traits. I love Debbie’s “give them a secret”. And inner thoughts let the reader know what they really think.

  7. Not really an answer to your questions, but one of my husband’s relatives was Charles Warren Fairbanks, who was Teddy Roosevelt’s vice president. Fairbanks, Alaska, was also named after him.
    I give my characters goals and reasons for them, which, depending on how they achieve or don’t achieve them, speaks to their character.
    Physical descriptions come from other characters and tend to be broad brushstrokes. Let the readers draw their own images.

    • Hi Elaine. I like visualizing my characters before I start to write a scene, but sometimes they refuse to show up on stage looking like what I thought they did!

    • Thanks, Dale. We’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and praying it isn’t the proverbial train!

      I like your idea of letting behavior and attitude start to describe the character.

      Have a good week.

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