1. ASManager2.zip Driver
2. K_ACTION.txt File Contents

K_ACTION.txt Driver File Contents (ASManager2.zip)

Name: <  >
Class: <  >
Date: <  >



Creating Character through Action

In these files you have learned about and practiced the use of six basic strategies for developing character. They are:

1) Description
2) Dialogue
3) Action
4) Reactions of other characters
5) Setting
6) Commentary

This file will focus on developing characters through action.

Describing a person's actions will allow you to show the character in situations that reveal inner character. How they react to different situations, what they are thinking about, and what they are doing all reveal character.

This passage is from The Red Pony by John Steinbeck. The main character, Jody, loves his pony very much and has been nursing him during a serious illness. The pony has escaped from his stall and gone off to die. As this scene begins, Jody has followed the pony's tracks to the top of a ridge.

At the top of the ridge Jody was winded. He paused, puffing noisily. The blood pounded in his ears. Then he saw what he was looking for. Below, in one of the little clearings in the brush lay the red pony. In the distance, Jody could see the legs moving slowly and convulsively. And in a circle around him stood the buzzards, waiting for the moment of death they know so well.

Jody leaped forward and plunged down the hill. The wet ground muffled his steps and the brush hid him. When he arrived, it was all over. The first buzzard sat on the pony's head and its beak had just risen dripping with dark eye fluid. Jody plunged into the circle like a cat. The black brotherhood arose in a cloud, but the big one on the pony's head was too late. As it hopped along to take off, Jody caught its wing tip and pulled it down. It was nearly as big as he was. The free wing crashed into his face with the force of club, but he hung on. The claws fastened on his leg and the wing elbows battered his head on either side. Jody groped blindly with his free hand. His fingers found the neck of the struggling bird. The red eyes looked into his face, calm and fearless and fierce; the naked head turned from side to side. Then the beak opened and vomited a stream of putrefied fluid. Jody brought up his knee and fell on the great bird. He held the neck to the ground with one hand while his other found a piece of sharp white quartz. The first blow broke the beak sideways and black blood spurted from the twisted, leathery mouth corners. He struck again and missed. The red fearless eyes still looked at him, impersonal and unafraid and detached. He struck again and again, until the buzzard lay dead, until its head was a red pulp. He was still beating the dead bird when Billy Buck pulled him off and held him tightly to calm his shaking.

Excerpted from The Red Pony by John Steinbeck. Copyright 1933, 1937, 1938 (c) renewed 1961, 1965, 1966 by John Steinbeck. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc.

1) How would you describe Jody's inner self during this scene?

<  >

2) Copy or type any two phrases which describe actions revealing Jody's feelings. Put those phrases in the spaces below.

<  >

<  >

3) Delete all except the set of words which you feel best describes Jody's character:

 a) pitying, sympathetic
 b) bewildered, uncertain
 b) angry, vengeful, driven
 c) sad, lonely, despondent


Name and save this file now. (Press ctrl+S, type a name for the file, and press enter.)

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This passage is from The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway:

Then he began to pity the great fish that he had hooked. He is wonderful and strange and who knows how old he is, he thought. Never have I had such a strong fish nor one who acted so strangely. Perhaps he is too wise to jump. He could ruin me by jumping or by a wild rush. But perhaps he has been hooked many times before and he knows that this is how he should make his fight. He cannot know that it is only one man against him, nor that it is an old man. But what a great fish he is and what he will bring in the market if his flesh is good. He took the bait like a male and he pulls like a male and his fight has no panic in it. I wonder if he has any plans or if he is just as desperate as I am?

1) How would you describe the old man's inner self during this scene?

<  >

2) Copy or type any two phrases which describe thoughts which reveal the old man's character. Put those phrases in the spaces below.

<  >

<  >

3) Copy or type one phrase which shows best the old man's attitude toward the fish he has hooked.

<  >

4) Delete all except the set of words which you feel best describes the old man's character:

 a) proud, respectful, curious
 b) anxious, defeated by life, despondent
 c) detached, angry


====================

Choose either Jody or the old man, and write a paragraph describing an action involving this character. Your objective is to describe an action that fits the character as it is understood from the excerpts you have read. Remember the following things as you begin to write:

1) Keep the action simple and easily described. Your focus is on revealing character, not on informing the reader about the action.

2) Scroll up and reread the passage until you are certain you have a feeling for the character. Use the same setting (e.g., the pony death scene or the catching of the fish). The action you choose should be similar to the action in the excerpt.

The character I have chosen is: <  >

Begin your action paragraph below:

<  >


If you haven't done so already, name and save this file now. (Press ctrl+S, type a name for the file, and press enter.)

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end of activity
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