Argumentative writing: structure, techniques, and applications

¶ … Roundness' of Characters

Character is one of the driving forces behind great literature. To the extent that a writer can create "real" fictional characters, characters who are both compelling and honest, characters who personify the human condition, characters who have resonance long after one's left them behind in the pages of the novel or short story (who can forget Melville's famous eccentric, Bartleby the scrivener, and his haunting refrain "I would prefer not to"); to the extent that a writer can do these things well is critical in determining the overall success of the work; success not defined in the commercial sense, but in the aesthetic and artistic sense.

The following short stories, "Cruelty the Humans Heart" by O'Neil De Noux, "Controlled Burn" and "Sportfishing with Cameron" by Dr. Norman German are character driven narratives. That is to say, each story relies on the presence of unique characters to help push the story forward, to create intrigue, to give the reader a memorable experience. The thesis of this essay to examine how each of these short stories succeeds in creating "real" or "round" fictional characters.

Before examining the text of the aforementioned stories, it would be helpful to address what separates good literary characters from great ones. The critic James Wood, in his book How Fiction Works discusses this topic at length; here is a brief excerpt that cuts to the heart of the issue of character:

"So the vitality of literary character has less to do with dramatic action, novelistic coherence, and even plain plausibility -- let alone likeability -- than with a larger philosophical or metaphysical sense, our awareness that a character's actions are deeply important, that something profound is at stake, with the author brooding over the face of that character like God over the face of the waters" (Wood 78).

If this is the rubric for creating compelling characters in literature, for creating characters that are in the conventional sense "round" - "Round characters "surprise" us each time they reappear, they are flimsily theatrical; they combine well with other characters in conversation and 'draw one another out without seeming to do so'" (Wood 79) -- as opposed to those characters that are in a conventional sense "flat" -- "The kind of character who is awarded a single, essential attribute, which is repeated without change as the person appears and reappears in a novel (Wood 79) -- then let us examine how each short story meets this standard.

From the outset of "Controlled Burn" the reader learns that Cecilia is different. German tells the reader that Cecilia was "named after a road sign" that she would "trap and harvest catfish" with her derelict father as a young child (German 1). In short, Cecilia did not grow up in a traditional household. but, perhaps, what's most interesting about Cecilia as a character, as the brainchild of German, is that she is a female. German broke the reader's implicit expectation about "The Warden" -- the first two words in the first paragraph - by endowing her with femininity. Had German opted to make "The Warden" a he, would the story still have the same impact?

The answer is no. The whole story hinges on the male vs. female dynamic as well as the father vs. daughter dynamic. it's the last line of the story "You did, Daddy" that really burns the reader (German 3). Burns in the sense that, to circle back to Wood's definition of "roundness," it's at this point that the reader recognizes something profound is at stake; not the entrapment of a wanted poacher, but a daughter's revenge against her deadbeat dad.

Like "Controlled Burn," "Sportfishing with Cameron" is a revenge story of sorts (probably classified as more of a nature's revenge story). The anti-hero, the greedy and obtuse fisherman Cameron, makes wayward decisions that end up costing him his life. What is intriguing about Cameron as a character are his flaws, which are fully pronounced in the story, for example: he is an alcoholic, he hits and swears at his son, "Cameron flicked a backhand at his son's face, swift, but not hard" (German 5), and his biggest flaw, his fatal flaw, his limited self-awareness coupled with an inability to empathize with others, "Cameron looked at his boy, trying to get inside his mind and understand what would make him do something like this, but he could not penetrate that deep, so he just shook his head. 'How stupid can you get'" (German 5).

It's this honest rendering of Cameron's fatal flaw that gives him his shape or his "roundness" as a character. Readers know individuals who are so myopic or self-absorbed that they cannot imagine what it's like to be someone else or they cannot see the error in their own hypocritical behavior. At the end of the day, that's what Cameron is, a hypocrite. And therein lies the message to the reader; the moral of the story, the important stuff, self-reflection and self-criticism are integral to personal growth.

In Noux's story, "Cruelty the Humans Heart," the "round" character isn't the protagonist, (in this case the narrator) rather the "round" character is the delinquent the protagonist arrests and interacts with throughout the story; the problem child, Cristoph Priest.

In a brief but powerful clause, the narrator prefaces an early encounter with Priest: "We met ugly..." he says (Noux 1). In three small words Noux's narrator sets the tone for the entire piece. The reader knows that things are about to get ugly and it's also at this point that the reader can begin to grasp the scope and breadth of the narrator's antipathy for Priest, in addition to the turpitude of Priest himself. Soon after this introduction the reader is exposed to the violent ways of this young malcontent, "Cris looked at me, turned to his right and shot a big yellow dog who was just standing there, watching us" (Noux 1), "Cris, leaning against my front bumper, was strangling the birds still flopping on his belt. He snapped their necks before I could get to him" (Noux 3), and "Then he spit in my face" (Noux 3).

All three of these suggest an individual who is deeply disturbed, perhaps even anti-social. However, by just singling out the actions of Priest the reader is given a rather "flat" character, a character with no surprises. After all, the reader expects the anti-social character to torture innocent animals, the reader expects the anti-social character to spit in the face of a police offer, the reader expects the anti-social character to shoot the "big yellow dog," but what distinguishes Cris Priest from a cliched "bad guy," what gives him depth, what gives him roundness, is his name: Priest.