Depict the Character,
Mold the Typical Model
-A
useful Approach to Learn English Short Story
原创文章：青岛希尼尔翻译公司 http://www.sinosenior.com.cn
2014-11-16
Then how can we depict the typical character?
Undoubtedly, various depiction ways can be explored such as description,
narration, argument, emotion expression etc .At the same time, rhetoric
devices can be used, such as comparison , exaggeration ,contrast and so on .
All these methods are meaningful to depict a character at length. However,
it is not enough, for novel writing is quite different from normal narration
compositions .The difference consists in the principle that in order to
create bardian characters with social property, artistic generation is in
great need and typical methods cannot be neglected. Therefore, “the figure
must be typified. The minor but characteristic thing should be written into
huge but typical one .this is the mission of literature.”
The basic
principle of typification is the harmony between personality
and commonness .Every one in the story is a typical person ,and at the same
time ,a certain ,single one .Realism concludes not only the true details
,but also reproduce the typical character in the typical setting .Take the
hero in The Man of the House for example .The
little boy ,Sullivan ,bears the common psychology the same as the other
teens .However ,he has more valuable characters that others do not have
.Seeing his mother ill in bed ,he decided to stay home and look after her .
Besides, he walked a long distance to fetch the medicine for her.
Then ,what on
earth is the typical setting ?Simply put ,the typical setting is usually
some certain natural and social environment .The typical character is
referred too the persons that is a close entia of plenary commonness and
vivid personality .What is more important ,the character’s commonness must
be embodied through his own personality .In the story as we mentioned
before, Sullivan met with a little girl in the pensary .He was somewhat
interested in her activities and words .When asked to take the medicine
,Sullivan refused the voice in his deep heart .Instead ,he took all the
pills .With the bottle empty, he went back home .From this detail ,the story
,depicted the psychological conflict in this little boy’s heart .
Meantime ,there exist some problems that should be laid
enough emphasis on .The characters in the story is quite different from the
people in the real world .He ,as the creation of the writer ,comes from the
inner heart of the writer, mingled with the writer’s spirit, temper,
character, education background ,etc .He lives in the novel world which is a
whole connecting the relator and the creator .The character in the novel is
created imaginarily by the writer .Therefore; he is quite different from the
people in the real world.
What is more, the writer molds the
character according to his artistic design ,but the character conceives the
art time and time again until the character becomes vivid .Once he is alive
,he will do everything not obeying the writer’s will completely .In this
situation, the writer has to write as the plot goes .There are many great
novels that we can not find out the archetypal persons in the realistic
world .It is even more difficult to mold this kind of character .However, a
real novel writer must master this method to depict the typical character
.Undoubtedly, it happens only when the writer conceives carefully and
profoundly.
Having read the story of The Man of the House ,a
conclusion can be easily made---the typical character is created based on
the collecting widely and generalize the persons concisely .Sullivan is a
kind ,pious ,brave ,open-minded boy .He gave up going to school. Instead, he
stayed home and took care of his sick mother .He, on one hand, is a common
boy .On the other hand, he stands for thousands of other boys who have the
similar characters in the similar setting.
There are still
many more things to mention here, but one thing can not be neglected .The
thumbprint of the characters should be embodied by the real detail depiction
.As we all know ,it consists of psychological ,language
,action depiction ,etc .At the beginning of this story ,a marvelous
psychological depiction is showed before us .Sullivan thought ,”she looked
very tired and helpless that my heart turned over with compassion .”Then, he
took measures .As the story goes, he asked his mother,” go back to bed and I
will light the fire. “
Generally
speaking, the writer had better write his familiar themes, as they are
abstracted from a number of materials in his daily life .And only to mold
the character based on his chosen theme, will his story be attractive and
valuable .Therefore, it is wise for the writer to pick up the uncommon
things of the daily phenomenon .In this way, he can reflect the panorama of
his times and social environment and the reader will see the insurgent sea
through only a little spray.
To sum up ,to
read and study the short stories ,enough attention must be paid to find out
the details ,because the typical character in the typical setting is usually
achieved by these proper and potent details .Only when we systemize the
meaningful details ,will the aim to depicting the typical character in the
typical setting come true.
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