Character

static, dynamic, archetype, stereotype



 Questions to ask about characters:
  • Is the main character static or dynamic?
  • If the main character is dynamic, then what does he or she learn?
    I would argue that the MC (main character) has to gain insight in time to save him or herself from death.
    A deathbed revelation is good, but maybe a little too late to be considered truly dynamic.
  • If main character is static, then what do they FAIL to learn. What is their mistake, or character flaw?
  • Do you see archetypal or stereotypical dimensions to the character?

STATIC
A static character fails to gain insight.

"Within the first season, we kind of realized Cartman's like a little Archie Bunker .... He doesn't really know what he's doing; he doesn't care. He's just a product of his environment.”listen(8 minute audio)

cartman

 

Even in the TV universe, Cartman is heir to a rich tradition.

"He's not the first overweight, problematic, money-chasing bigoted male to be on television — not even the first cartoon one," Johnson-Woods says. She sees Cartman as a hybrid of Archie Bunker, Jackie Gleason of The Honeymooners and the animated Fred Flintstone.

DYNAMIC
A dynamic character gains insight.

Luke Skywalker learns to fight the (his?) dark side; and that "the force is with him". He, like Dorothy, realizes he must only look inside of himself (in his own back yard) to find happiness.

darth vader

Even Darth Vader, can be seen as dynamic..." as the series progresses, this dark character gets more complex — like King Lear, or Frankenstein. Like all of us, for that matter. In the end, Cooper says, Vader acts as any father should towards a child: He sacrifices his own life to save his son." listen
(8 minute audio)

ARCHETYPE
An archetype is a universal , familiar character. The animal character with magic powers is literary archetype.

Anansi Africa

The Owl : The Americas
Magic Monkey: Japan The Cat ; Egypt and Europe

Carl Jung, the psychologist, coined this term to refer to "personality types" he saw as universal. He claimed that " archetypes are elemental forces which play a vital role in the creation of the world and of the human mind itself."

He claimed that we have a "collective unconscious", that is, that all people have "imprints" of collective culture in our awareness. One of his archetypes is "The Shadow". He asserted that all cultures divide life into good and bad (Yin and Yang). We tend to fictionalize the bad into the Devil, a monster, etc... Jung identified only a few archetypes (the shadow, the child, the self) .

The term archetype has been liberally applied to Literary analysis. Main characters are analyzed for their "universal nature". Some examples of these characters are: A son who kills his father (Oedipus-- Greek;) . A mother who kills her children (Medea - Greek; La Llorona, Mexican). The return of the prodigal son-- the least favorite son who is cast out and then returns triumphant (The Bible).The young person who journeys to discover him or her self (Walkabout, Australia)

The question to ask when you read a story, is : does the main character have archetypal qualities? There is no definitive list of archetypes, however, it gives dimension to a character analysis to ask this question. For example, is E.T. an archetype? Is the figure of an "alien" or a stranger who we befriend and understand universal? (I would say, yes).

Are politicians' struggles to be faithful (and truthful) an archetype? An American Male stereotype? A confirmation that "power corrupts" and thus a political stereotype? Or are all those guys (Weiner, Edwards, Clinton, Kennedy, and the list goes on) just static guys?

STEREOTYPE:
A stereotype is a culture-bound, exaggerated character.

Long Duk Dong is the creation of writer-director John Hughes, whose films — The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off — enshrined a Hollywood-heightened image of a suburban high school near you. Geeks, jocks, cheerleaders, kids desperate to find an in with the popular crowd — they were the standard character set.

 

 

long duk dong

Long Duk Dong: Last of the Hollywood Stereotypes?. listen(8 minute audio)

 
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