Character Clues

Character Analysis

Direct Characterization

You know that outspoken friend you have that's always calling it like she sees it? That's how direct characterization works. It's when the text just gives you information, such as Marv "never shuts up" (1.2.5), or Ritchie is "always quiet" (1.2.6). And Ed says things like this all the time because it's part of his whole honest and upfront persona.

We should also tell you that since Ed is a character himself, any information we get through him is actually indirect. It passes through his filter, which means it's inevitably biased and, as such, fictional. There is no unbiased and omniscient narrator to give us direct characterization about our main man in this book; there's just Ed. Because of this, much of what he says about other people is really just as much commentary about himself (or his feelings) as it is about anything else.

Don't believe us? Check out how he describes Audrey:

She has yellow hair, wiry legs, the most beautiful crooked smile in the world, and lovely hips, and she watches a lot of movies. (1.2.7)

We'd say he likes the way she looks, and that's because he's totally in love with her. So, anything Ed tells us as fact is actually indicating how he feels about whatever he's discussing, disguised as direct characterization. It's a little dizzying, but also pretty cool when you think about it.

Physical Appearances

People put a lot of time, effort, and money into their physical appearance. Aging celebrities have made entire second careers out of it. You might think that Ed's peeps wouldn't care about appearances because they're from the bad part of town, but you'd only be half right. Ed tells us a lot about how people and places look. When he first visits Father O'Reilly he notices:

The roof is corrugated, red, and rusty. The walls are a dirty white fibro. Blistered, sore-looking paint. Crippled fence, struggling to remain standing. And a gate that's in agony. (2.7.38)

Yikes. No wonder Ed's worried about going in.

Yet these descriptions do more than just provide the backdrop for where Ed's going, because they also show us how Ed perceives situations. Plus the descriptions give us some useful info about the people he's visiting too. We see that Father O'Reilly is in a crummy neighborhood, but he's still bright and cheery to his neighbors—and that lets us know that this is a guy who's invested in seeing the positive in life.

Speech and Dialogue

Ed's mom is a spitfire. When Ed forgets to do what he's promised, she calls him up and yells:

"You were s'posed to pick up that coffee table for me from KC Furniture, Ed. […] Y' big dickhead."
(1.3.58)

We warned you she's blunt, but we also should point out that we get to know her through these kinds of comments. We see that she's used to using slang, cuss words, and all kinds of run-of-the-mill, everyday language—which lets us know that she's probably let a pretty rough and tumble life herself. It also reminds us that the odds are not exactly in Ed's favor, since she doesn't throw a whole lot of kind and supportive words his way. In other words, the way Ma speaks shows us both who she is and where Ed comes from, which both add texture to the plot.