Creating Unforgettable Characters by Linda Seger Read Free Book Online Page B

the Amish value toward violence:
    Rachel comes in after John Book has been showing his gun to Samuel.
    RACHEL
    John Book, while you are in this house, I insist that you respect our ways.
    JOHN
    Right. Here. Put it somewhere where it's safe. Where he won't find it.
    This scene is followed by one between Samuel and Eli. In this scene, Eli carries the values of the community:
    ELI
    The gun—that gun of the hand is for the taking of human life. Would you kill another man?
    Samuel stares at it, not meeting his grandfathers eyes. Eli leans forward, extends his hands ceremonially.
    ELI
    What you take into your hands, you take into your heart.
    A beat, then Samuel musters some defiance.
    SAMUEL I would only kill a bad man.
    ELI
    Only a bad man. I see. And you know these bad men on sight? You are able to look into their hearts and see this badness?
    SAMUEL I can see what they do. I have seen it.
    ELI
    And having seen, you would become one of them? So that the one goes into the other into the other, into the other . . . ?
    He breaks off, bows his head for a moment. Then he fixes the boy with a stern eye and, driving the heel of his palm firmly into the tabletop, with enormous intensity:
    ELI
    (continuing)
    "Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord!"
    (indicating pistol, continuing from Corinthians 6:17) "And touch not the unclean thing!"
    Many films deal with a recognition that some values are worth fighting for and dying for. Silkwood, The China Syndrome, and the Indiana Jones films all revolve around characters who are driven by what they value.
    Many films deal with characters at a time of crisis when they must make moral choices, confronting their values and choosing those they will live by.
    The Breakfast Club shows four people dealing with their identities. The Journey of Natty Gann deals with a crisis that leads to a girl's search for her father. In both Absence of Malice and The Accused we see a character who learns integrity during the course of the film.
    In Dead Poets Society, we learn about the value of carpe diem —"seize the day"—and about sucking the marrow of life.
    Besides these life themes, there are other driving forces that control characters. The search for forgiveness, the desire for reconciliation, the yearning for love or home can be found in many films ranging from Shane to A Fish Called Wanda to E. T.
    Incorporating values into particular characters does not mean that your characters need to discuss what they believe. Instead, you communicate values through what the character does, through conflict, and through character attitudes.
    DETAILING THE CHARACTER
    If you infuse your characters with an emotional life, with specific attitudes and values, they will be multidimensional. But there is another step that can make the character original and unique. That is adding the details.
    Behavior—the way people do things—marks the difference between two people who might be similar in physical appearance or outlook. People have distinguishing characteristics, small details that make them singular and special.
    If I were to make a list of some details I've noticed about my friends and acquaintances, it would include:
    ■ A person who says "you know" and "for sure" in every sentence
    ■ A thirty-year-old woman who carries two stuffed animals in her handbag, and makes origami cranes as gifts for people she meets
    ■ A thirty-five-year-old man who never wears suits because of his anti-establishment bias
    ■ A forty-year-old man who always has jazz music playing in the background
    ■ A professional woman who is known for her unusual earrings (worn only among friends) of bananas, flamingos, cockatoos, and boomerangs
    Some of the most memorable characters are remembered because of such details: Murphy Brown breaks number-2 pencils when she's under stress; Indiana Jones hates snakes, and always wears his favorite hat; Archie Bunker's pet name for his son-in-law is