Toni Morrison, Andre Dubus, Anton

¶ … Toni Morrison, Andre Dubus, Anton Chekhov, Robert Frost, & Ernest Hemingway

Literary works have become significant artifacts for readers because of the similarities and almost-real depictions of the lives of its characters in a particular period and event in human history. Analyses of literary works include, among others, looking into transitions or changes that occurred within a character's personality or behavior throughout the story. This conscious effort to illustrate changes in characterization is vital to the development of the story, since literary works ultimately mirror the reality that it is through human acts that humanity's fate changes over time. That is, an individual's interaction with his/her society inevitably leads to a change in his behavior, and vice versa.

In the texts that follow, a character analysis in the works of Toni Morrison, Andre Dubus, Anton Chekhov, Robert Frost, and Ernest Hemingway illustrate how the characters' social environment have influenced the transition in their behavior as each writer's literary work progresses towards its end. Specific characters included for the analysis are the following: Pecola Breedlove in Morrison's "The Bluest Eye," Matt Fowler in Dubus' "Killings," Dmitri Gurov in "The lady with the pet dog" by Chekhov, the woman character in Frost's "Home Burial," and Krebs in "Soldier's Home" by Hemingway. In the character analysis, this paper posits that the prevailing social environment that each character lives in led to their transition from being resolute to irresolute individuals determined to make beneficial or detrimental changes in their lives. The following are discussions of how this thesis applies to each character, with references to each writer's cited literary work.

In "The Bluest Eye," Morrison creates the character of Pecola Breedlove, a black American in 1940s American society, a period wherein prejudice and racial discrimination against African-Americans is prevalent. In Pecola's character, readers can see the internal conflict that developed within her: as a young girl seeking her identity in her society, she is torn between accepting her identity as a black American and aspiring to become a white American, hence her preoccupation to have the "bluest eye(s)." Her social environment has influenced the development of her internal conflict, where she sees people appreciating the beauty of white Americans and expressing disdain for people (especially women) of her race. Poverty and disunity within Pecola's family furthered her desire to become 'white and beautiful,' and this perversion to have the bluest eye led to her eventual descent to insanity. Morrison interprets Pecola's descent to madness as her way of escaping her reality when she cannot have the bluest eye and refuses to accept this fact, insisting that she now possesses the bluest eye. The author sadly notes this transition in one of the main characters of the story, stating, "[y]ou looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; you looked closely and could not find the source. Then you realized that it came from conviction, their conviction...And they took the ugliness in their hands, threw it as a mantle over them, and went about the world with it."

Matt Fowler in Dubus' "Killings" presents a more realistic depiction of human nature when confronted with deep hurt and frustration over a loved one's death. Matt, father to Frank who had been shot and killed, expresses character transition as he shifted his behavior to being an irresolute and dependent father to being a courageous and determined individual as he sought to avenge his son's death. This transition is evident in the story, wherein Dubus initially characterizes Matt to be dependent on his family, seeking the courage and support of his wife or son Frank when he is about to make decisions within the family. He is identified as follows in the story: "...he had not so much moved through his life as wandered through it, his spirit like a dazed body bumping into furniture and corners. He had always been a fearful father..." This depiction of Matt shows how his love for his family has become a weakness for him, for there is always a fear in him that he will fail as a father to his children and husband to his wife. However, this characterization of Matt changed when Strout, Frank's killer, was released from imprisonment. Matt takes revenge on his own hands, for he believes that he does not deserve the freedom that he got after killing his son. Thus, he now becomes an individual determined to avenge his son, and does so by killing Strout. Matt's characterization in "Killings" illustrates how character transition is achieved by bringing strength to his personality and behavior; however, this character transition resulted to a detrimental effect, and this is reflected in Matt's killing of Strout.

The woman character in Robert Frost's "Home burial" illustrates the strengthening of her character in order to protest against the oppressive nature of her husband. Her husband's killing of their child marks the pivotal point wherein her character changes from being submissive to being radically expressive of her feelings of protests about their child's death. Her running away from her husband at the end of the poem illustrates the accomplishment of the woman's transition, a symbolic representation of her freedom from oppression and being the husband's submissive and abused wife.