The Outsiders: Main Characters
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Literature | The Outsiders |
Transcript
pony boy he's a teenager in tulsa oklahoma in the
nineteen sixties and his friends are members of his gang [Gang members appear]
the greasers So in this novel we learn about characters
in two different ways One is direct characterization and one
is indirect characterization and that's a principle that applies to
Any novel or story Indirect characterization is when you find
out about a character by observing what they do and [Man holding a knife]
what they say They're not being described to you Ah
direct characterization as you might guess is when the narrator
or the character directly tells you something about himself or
another character So in this instance we have scenes where
ponyboy describes his hair which is longer than most boys
in this town But we also have scenes where ponyboy [Ponyboy stroking his hair]
is just observing other people or thinking about what he's
doing And we get a sense of his personality that
way So pony boy's friends We also learn about their
personalities through direct and indirect characterization on dh One of
the direct pieces of characterization we get is their name
So his friend keith is known as a two bit [Keith appears]
because he talks a lot So that's like If i
said to you what are your two cents Can i
have your two cents Keith has two cents and then [Keith on a pile of 2 cents]
some so they call him to bits Um and likewise
their friends Soda pop It is as you might expect
very sweet and bubbly And it's interesting that these characters [Boy holding soda can]
are all named in these nontraditional ways Do you think
that the fact that they go by these nicknames is
important It is in a lot of different ways It's
true to the setting it's very realistic They're in a
gang and they all have nicknames for each other and
it's also a way of capturing teenage identity Ah your
identity as a teenager comes from what your friends think [Ponyboy's facebook page appears]
of you and how you act in the world Yeah
who are the characters And how do we learn more
about them Our nicknames important to the characters and the