Writing a Characterization of the Book Hero

Students write a characterization of the book hero very often. But do they know how to do it correctly? Read the main rules of such a composition here.

How to Write a Characterization of the Book Hero?

Writing many compositions is part of the life of every student. There are a lot of topics, which they describe in their works, a lot of questions, which they think about, and a lot of efforts to write a good composition.

Perhaps students write a characterization of the book hero the most often, as this kind of composition can be applied to every book and every hero. Students analyze the literary portrait of a hero when they discuss each book. They think about his or her character, appearance, behavior and the role in the book. When the book is analyzed, a professor presents a list of topics and gives students a task to write a composition. They can choose one topic, which they like the most. In the list of themes,there is always a characterization of the hero.

From the beginning, this topic seems easy, so many students choose it. But it isn’t so easy, as there are many aspects, which they should pay attention to. There are also some general rules about writing a characterization. So let us find out how to write a characterization of the book hero correctly! We will use a book “Gold Miner” by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann as an example.

What Are the Main Rules?

The quality of your composition allows your professor to evaluate your knowledge and understanding of the plot and topic of the book and your ability to highlight the main things and make conclusions. That is why you need to know how to write the characterization correctly. To get advice and/or examples, go here to “Do My Essay”.

The general ruleof this kind of compositions is the fullanalysis of the image of the hero in the context of the plot, the author’s point of view and the cultural age. It’s also very important to give the examples from the text to each assertion.

The characterization has its structure. There are 3 main parts: introduction, the main part and the conclusions. Both the introduction and the conclusions have 1 paragraph each, while the main part can consist of several paragraphs – it depends on the amount of the described items.

What Should Be Mentioned Necessarily?

Now let us speak about the main rules of characterization more specifically.

The Introduction

This part of the composition should contain the short information about the author and a book. You don’t need to write the biography of the author – you can mention his or her name, the title of the book and the main reason why this book was written. It’s enough to write from 5 to 7 sentences in the introduction.

The Main Part

In this part of the characterization you need to write at least 20 sentences. In the main part, you should describe the character of a hero, his or her place in the plot, the purpose of this hero in the book, the author’s point of view; you should analyze the image of the hero in the context of the plot and the cultural age.

The Hero in the Context of the Cultural Age

It is good to start the main part from this information. A description of the cultural age can explain many actions of the hero and his or her traits. Knowing the features of the cultural age, you can explain the social status of the hero.To confirm information with examples from the text, you candescribe the environment,in which his/her character was formed and analyze the connection.

For example, Anselm, the hero of the “Gold Miner” by Hoffman lives in two realities at the same time. It can be explained by the peculiarities of the Romanticism, when this book was written.

The Character of the Hero

This item can be a simple description of the hero’s character or it can be connected with the previous item. In the first case, you give the assertion about the traits of the hero and confirm it with the example from the text. You also need to analyze the reasons for his or her actions in the context of the plot.

In the second case, you need to do more work. You need to describe the hero’s trains, find the examples in the text and analyze the connection between the traits and the features of the cultural age. For example, you give the assertion that Anselm is lonely. You can use as an example the situation at the beginning of the book, when he was going to the celebration alone, surrounded by love couples and big companies. After that you find the connection between this trait of Anselm and the featuresof the Romanticism: detached from the people, lonely hero, who had no place in the society, was the most popular figure in the literature of this cultural age.

The Author’s Point of View

This item is connected with the place in the plot and the purpose of this hero in the book, because it is the author, who gives the place and purpose to the personage.

Those three items are the most difficult to describe. The reason of it is that we don’t know the author’s idea about this hero. We can only analyze the words and expressions, which are used for the description of the hero, his/her actions and views. In your composition, you can describe your own subjective thoughts. But they should be put in sentences with corresponding expressions and be confirmed by examples from the text. We can say the same about the purpose of this hero in the book – we can only assume, because we don’t know the author’s purposes.

You can analyze the place of the hero in the plot. For this, you describe his/her role in a situation or someone’s life and write about this situation or the person.

Your Own Attitude

This part is the easiest, because you need just to write your own thoughts. You don’t need to write the examples from the book, but you should explain your opinion. It is enough to tell your attitude and give some explanations. For example, you can say, that you like Anselm because he is kind, smart, and generous.

The Conclusions

This part can have from 3 to 5 sentences. In the paragraph of conclusions, you shortly sum up the main assertions from the whole composition and name the main traits of the hero. You can also write about the importance of the book for the world and its level of popularity.

Of course, you need to read a book before writing a characterization. But when you know the plot and the general information, it’s not difficult for you to write this type of composition, and with the help of this article it will be even easier.