Character Types

1. Character Types Ms. Jordan 6th-Grade Reading

2. Introduction This lesson is about the different types of characters found in literature. We will study each character type so that you can identify types of characters in stories that you read.

3. Types of Characters • Protagonist • Antagonist • Round characters • Flat characters • Static characters • Dynamic characters

4. Protagonist/Antagonist • It is easiest to think of the protagonist and antagonist characters as the "good guy" and the "bad guy" respectively. You can think of the protagonist as the hero and the antagonist as the villain.

5. Protagonist • Theprotagonist is the main character of a story. The protagonist can be male or female, and is "good" most of the time, but in some instances can be "bad.“ Consider the story “The Three Little Pigs.” In the original story, the three pigs are the protagonists and the wolf is the antagonist.

6. Antagonist In the movie Jaws the antagonist is not a person it’s a SHARK! • The character who causes the conflict against the protagonist is called the antagonist. The antagonist is not always human, but can be a group or force as well. Whatever the protagonist does that is good, the antagonist will work to counteract.

7. Round • Characters that are described in depth, with many details, are well-rounded characters. They are called round characters. If you're reading a story and you feel like you know a character extremely well, then most likely the character is round. The main character in a story is almost always round.

8. Flat • Characters that are not described well, that you're not given much information about, are flat characters. If you draw a flat picture of a house, for example, you can only see one side of it. You cannot see three of the four sides. This is how a flat character is; you can only see a few characteristics of the character. There are many things you cannot "see", or many details you are not given by the author.

9. Round/Flat • As a reader, judge whether or not the character is round or flat by trying to write down characteristics of the character. Answer the question: What do you know about the character? If your list is long, with many characteristics, then the character is round. If your list is short, or there's not many characteristics at all, then the character is flat.

10. Static/Dynamic • The key word when dealing with the difference between static and dynamic characters is "change.“ Do not focus on changes that happen TO a character, but rather, changes that happen WITHIN a character.

11. Static • In order for a character to be considered a static character, the character must remain basically the same throughout the entire story. The character does not undergo any internal changes.

12. Dynamic • A dynamic character is a character that undergoes an internal change sometime between the beginning and end of the story. The change in the character is usually crucial to the story itself.

13. Review of Categories of Characters • Protagonist • Antagonist • Round characters • Flat characters • Static characters • Dynamic characters Become more aware of this as you read and watch movies!