Here are the guidelines:
- Reading responses must be AT LEAST 250 words.
- Include your full name at the end of your comments. Unnamed comments will be deleted.
- From the "Comment As" drop-down menu, choose Anonymous, then click "Publish."
- Reading responses are due by midnight on the night PRIOR to our discussion of the required reading.
This is my response
ReplyDeleteCharacters for me have always been a struggle. I start to get these really cool ideas and when I start to introduce them into my essay somehow they always go flat. In the reading it talks about flat and round characters. I found that extremely interesting. In my writing I usually tend to lose that spark and it usually starts with my characters. At times I don't know how to use them. I like to describe my characters to the tee, but after the reading maybe I can try using another technique given from the reading. In the reading it mentions a lot of techniques for example, making them come to life. We have the power to make these characters come to life. This is one thing that I enjoy about characters, and writing in general.
After reading “ The Management of Grief” I can say that the characters felt so real the detail in how Mukherjee describes his characters is astonishing. The characters never fell flat, and although this tragedy did not occur to me, I could feel the paint these characters were feeling. Also the language used was incredible it most definitely intrigued me to continue reading. The details given in the reading was almost perfect. When the woman is contemplating suicide her character just felt so real to me. The way she spoke, cried, pondered in her family's memories. This was a very good reading and I can learn a lot from this story, when it comes to using characters.
Lizette Garcia
I’m glad the confusion with the phrase “out of character” was cleared up in chapter ten. It was something I had wondered about when a friend of mine (who is also a writer; who was helping me workshop) pointed out a particular scene in which my protagonist seemed out of character. The explanation about a character’s actions surprising the reader in an unconvincing way is spot on. That was my problem. I think I have a better grasp now on how to solidify a character’s personality. Or I hope I do.
ReplyDeleteAnother segment I found useful was the part where the author pointed out that characters can visualize things that they’re imagining in their heads. Such a simple concept, but I took that idea and ran away with it in my story for this class. I think I wrote three separate scenes where my characters were imagining overly romantic scenarios that were not actually happening in a way that (I hope) will be comedic for readers. But you guys can tell me if I succeeded when it’s my turn to be workshopped.
The Management of Grief was amazing. I was weary when I saw the title because whenever I see grief depicted in books (or more accurately, in movies) I feel entirely apathetic and get annoyed. I myself have never experienced the loss of a loved one and, much like Shailia’s mother, I find it difficult to empathize. However, The Management of Grief immediately grabbed me. I loved how subtle the text was about the tragedy in the first two or three pages. Instead of exposition Bharati Mukherjee cleverly sprinkled clues for us to puzzle together. I LOVE when stories start out this way. I enjoy pausing over every new clue to make guesses before I continue reading. When the hinted at tragedy was finally revealed in a more clear way I also enjoyed going back to the beginning of the story. Re-reading to understand how every word these characters said made sense in the context of their universe.
Once I’d been drawn in this way Mukherjee skillfully manipulated my emotions. I actually started tearing up when the narrator says “I never felt comfortable calling my husband by his first name.” and then later on when she mentions writing a poem to her husband so he can finally know how she feels.
Favorite sentence in the story: “It is the shark’s duty.”
I had to put the book down and write that sentence down on a sticky note. I pinned it to my bulletin board.
Andrea “Andy” De Llano
Giving characters life has always been a struggle of mine. Knowing that there is a difference between a flat and round character, and knowing what makes up the two has really helped me know the difference between the two and make that distinction in my own writing. I was always a little confused when someone told me that my fictional characters were too fake. Having read chapter 10 on the different ways characters can be developed really helped me understand where I need to continue working. I liked the fact that the book mentioned that even though most characters should be round it is alright if a small character is a little flat, and example given in the book is the waiter. I always thought that every single person should be explained in detail and now knowing that there are characters that need little do not need to be as detailed.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading The Management of Grief, I loved how grief itself was depicted. I was a little hesitant before I read the book because I have a hard time connecting with the characters when they are feeling something so deep and powerful. At times it is a little cliché as to how the character reacts that I am left not caring about that particular person. Having the main character feel grief, a kind of grief only a mother could ever feel, however she was so calm, this allowed me to really see how hurt she was. She was so hurt she shut down and was calm. That made her look even more broken than she would if she was all over the place with emotion. I could personally relate to that, my personal first instinct is very calm. I liked how from the very beginning the reader is pulled in, wanting to know why things are occurring around her. I really enjoyed how the entire story was like a puzzle piece that we as readers are constantly trying to peace everything together.
Evelyn Lopez
ReplyDeleteChapter 10 has given me new light into shaping a character. Characters help shape our stories in so many ways, and they are a complicated factor for me. Characters, like the chapter mentioned, are these people we want so badly to bring to life. There is so much that can go into them and their process. I believe that all the possibilities are what drive the madness and indecisiveness behind my want to create someone to help fill my stories. I will often have a story but make the characters flat and predictable. Finding this balance of keeping characters interesting and surprising is such a struggle because you can build them up or bring them down in different ways. The molding of this character is so meticulous. They have actions, thoughts, wants, needs, dreams, fears and memories. All this goes into their character development and their philosophy which helps makes their part in the story meld if its believable and able to deliver realness as a person.
ReplyDeleteThe Management of Greif was beautifully written. I have lost many family members and friends. Reading how each person struggled in a uniquely painful way was very moving. I could feel their regret, loss, and extreme sadness all while trying to piece together a tragedy I had no idea happened. What I truly enjoyed was how uplifting and piercing the voices and visions were affecting Shaila. I felt such a connection to how she still felt the presence of those who were gone. When my grandfather passed, my mother and I would swear to anyone we could hear his whistling. I stopped hearing it earlier than she did. Maybe I had moved on from it sooner. Case in Point, I really connected with her reminiscing in the sound and presence of her husband. In these ten pages, I saw the development of so many round characters. I find myself struggling with one or two. Bharati Mukherjee picked apart the different ways of grief in such a relatable way. It was an amazing read.
Victoria Vielma
I’ve always recognized characters in a literary work to be similar to that of a play or movie. The author is like the director in which they set the scene and then they place certain characters for the scene to play out. First time I’ve ever heard of flat or dynamic characters was in my Sophomore literature class, so this chapter was a suitable reminder of how to mold these figures into my works. In my experience, I’ve always felt that in order to make a character truly believable, the optimizable method is to base them off a real individual that we are familiar with. The reason being is we can take their past history and make sense of why they may act a certain way or why they may speak a certain way. In addition, for those who may lack imagination fuel just like me, you need assistance at times to help paint the canvas of your story.
ReplyDeleteIn The Management of Grief, it is a good reminder to note that this story is put here to portray the depiction of characters in the literary work. In my opinion, I felt the author does a great job at describing the different characters. In the first couple of pages, it seems she uses dialogue to not only push the narrative forward, but to also explain a bit of backstory and essentially mold the different personalities. For example, on page 354 where the author describes Kusum. In addition, on the next page on 355, the author describes Judith Templeton wearing notable clothing for the reader to digest. Also, with relation to the chapter, the author makes it believable for the narrator to respond in different manners in regards to the people she interacts with and the predicaments that she is placed in like the scene with the man in uniform. Similar to what I stated in the previous paragraph, it is possible that the author experienced something similar to this, and used those memories to fuel the characters and the rest of their attributes.
Patricio Hernandez (P.J.)
I knew that I needed to focus and work on characters more, and this chapter gave some great tips into creating and developing my next works. I always knew the importance of giving a character life and descriptions, but I never looked at it before like the way the book mentioned – an author writes 10% of what he knows about the character. That specific line showed me that successful writers have their entire character already envisioned in their head. Also, an important factor in making your character real is consistency, not just with their behavior, but over the book it is beneficial to add minor details or actions to a character. While reading The Management of Grief, I came to the realization that even characterization can add elements to the story. In several parts of the story, there’s an intense theme and tone in the scene, and a lot of that literary support was coming from lines that described the characters. From my personal experience, I’ve shared my own works with my girlfriend, and on a couple occasions she has mentioned that I make my main character too much like myself. While it’s not necessarily an issue, there are a lot of writers gather character inspiration from themselves, it’s still something that I’d rather stay away from. Instead, I’d like to put a little more focus on the smaller characters. The chapter talked about flat characters and how they aren’t very helpful to the story, but there are some cases where a flat character becomes iconic either through a repetitious action or phrase and I would like to do something similar with my piece and hopefully have it work to where it’ll become a favorable character for the reader.
ReplyDeleteJesus Pena
In "The Management of Grief" the element that stood out the most to me was the descriptive language. While Bharati Mukherjee is describing the narrator's dreams, they are picturesque, vibrant, and reflect the main character’s culture—there are recitations of Sanskrit prayers, butter-fed candles, and the colors are vivid: Vikram’s suit isn’t white, it’s vanilla, and it’s the same suit he wore the last time his wife saw him. The line “no seaweed wreathes his mouth” paints such a gorgeous image of Vikram with seaweed wreathing his mouth in death. The imagery in this story helps build the character and imagination of the narrator. Her religion leads to a spiritual experience that helps pull her out of the “depressed acceptance” stage, and I overall just really loved all of the description. Descriptive language is something I tumble into happily and can get lost in while writing, and this story sets a good example of using vivid imagery while making sure it’s helping to move the plot along.
ReplyDeleteMukherjee’s ability to get readers to empathize with her characters is admirable. The contrast between the narrator’s empathizing with the old Sikh couple and unsympathetic Judith Templeton jars the reader… It creates such a true image of a grieving person interacting with someone who just doesn’t get it because they haven’t felt kind of loss before (which Judith even admits to in the beginning). Overall, the story was able to bring up grief I’ve felt myself because the writing was so genuine, and it’s one of those far-between stories about death that are told without feeling gimmicky, so 10/10.
-Nicole Hawke
Chapter 10 started familiar, I had learned about the flat/ round characters before, although; there were others components which make characterization up. One thing I really like was the examples each category provided (some were really good), especially how to most believable aspects of a character such as their looks or feelings. This helps a lot a writer, in my opinion, me for example, trying to get a character together is difficult due to it not being ”believable enough.” One of the categories the book mentioned which helped me for my short writing is ‘what the character looks like” since I don't think I mention character as clear as they should be for a reader to “see” them. For a “what character says” I think I add up a lot of dialogue in my stories, the one problem I think I face is the other part the book mentions, “how they say it.” As towards the short story we read, it was a really good example for what the chapter explains, overall the story was amazing, it was slightly confusing at the start because everything seems to go by very fast. I found some favorites lines (page 356 from “Nothing will make..” to “This terrible calm will not go away.”) I've never been in this situation as the character’s, but I feel like some of us might've encountered a tragedy, and we didn't react as we “should've”. But I can't seem to define why if feelings of hurt are internally present.
ReplyDeleteLizbet Cantu
Chapter ten was a very interesting read. I had some basic understanding of what makes up characters, but the chapter and assigned story gave me new perspectives. I knew that character who were cliché never made spectacular characters. Characters sometimes give me a hard time because I don’t know how to make them fully rounded. The exercise at the end of the chapter seemed very interesting and makes me want to try it out for the characters in my short story. I feel that it would open the floodgates for ideas, concepts, and characteristics of my characters. I would also like to learn more about flashbacks and ways to implement them. Whenever I try it out, I feel it doesn’t quite make sense.
ReplyDeleteThe story that was assigned grasped me from the start. At first I did not think it was about that big of a tragedy, but as I kept reading and realization hit me, I was impressed. The author does a great job in describing each character. I especially enjoyed the part where Shaila and Judith visit the couple whose sons have died. I like how they are full of faith and convinced that God will provide. The way the author describes them reminds me of my family; if something of that magnitude were to come over us, I feel they’d have this attitude. They would be humble, faithful, and direct. It is here that I see that characters should also be relatable, at least to some extent.
Daniela Hernández
I really enjoyed the story and the chapter. For one, I’m very flat when it comes to character. I’m a super big fan of Elmore Leonard (Dickens of Detroit.) He’s known for his tight prose and characters. Leonard has always said, that it comes to character first. What Leonard tends to do is “audition” his characters. He writes down their name and lets the character talk. Quentin Tarantino is also a fan of this device. I’ve always had a hard enough time coming up with character because I didn’t know how to go about it. The chapter taught me that that having a great character helps. If I understand who my characters are and what they want, I will be golden.
ReplyDeleteThe short story was heart breaking. When I started reading, I assumed it was about Indian funeral. When I realized it was about a plane crash that took the lives of many Indians, I was like, DAMN! The character is so broken that you feel for her. It had a great character who was well developed. I thought her boys were alive and her husband was dead, not her whole family. The character leads you on this journey of trying to stay sane for other, but because we are in her head, we read how devastated she is inside. The customs and the magnitude of the events that happen are heart breaking. I enjoyed this story very much, but I didn’t enjoy the ending. It satisfied me, because she is still grieving, but I guess it will do.
Mathew Betancourt
Chapter 10
ReplyDeleteThe chapter went in depth on how to create round characters. In some way, the information was a refresher on how to build up a character with its actions, thoughts, surroundings, and dialogue. I've noticed in my past writings that I often forget to make use of the characters surroundings. Setting can tie into who a character is and causes the readers to understand the characters' interests. It was also cool to see examples of other texts like Kafka and Diaz to understand character development. The chapter didn't give a generic lesson about characters, but offered different perspectives and build to the making of a fully functional human.
The Management of Grief
I'm always a sucker for a sad story, and this was one of them. It was also a perfect example of how character building makes a story more interesting. As the character goes through a tragic loss, the story starts with her describing other characters and their mannerisms and appearance. When the story begins to build, it's clear that her emotions begin to grow and the reader gets a better sense of who she is. I especially like the instances when the narrator contradicts her actions and the things she says. Page 356 is a perfect example when she says, "I want to say to her, I wish I could scream, starve, walk into Lake Ontario, jump from the bridge." Including her true feelings makes me believe what she's going through and what she's thinking. Bharati Mukherkee used the characters being as an advantage to create a beautiful story.
Kassandra Salas
Creating believable characters that aren’t two dimensional and cliché is among the hardest things I need to work on. Many times, I create a character that in the end I realized is too similar to the countless tropes out there. This chapter made me realize that as long as the characters I create are believable and do not do something that goes against their character it’s okay to have flat characters. Flat and round characters are both essential to telling a story and including them in a work isn’t bad. I liked the methods described to build and convey the characters and their personalities. Many of them I was unfamiliar with and had no clue they could be used the way the book used them. Flashback was my favorite of the bunch, and I’m interested in using it in some of my writings. "The Management of Grief" does an amazing job in giving life to its main character. Her pain and loss just pour out of the pages, from her sense of directionless to her mistrust of Sikhs. Another thing that I admired from the short story was its method of telling us the tragedy. The author doesn’t spoon feed us the events, she gives us hints and clues that paint the larger picture of a Sikh terrorist attack on the plane her husband and children were in. Instead of just stating from the beginning these very events the author keeps us on the edge of our seats trying to piece together what had happened.
ReplyDeleteFlavio Hernandez
In my short experience creating characters I've had very flat characters, and some real ones that are based on someone, or more than two people. But it is hard to make a fictitious character more realistic. I like the way LaPlante explains in detail how to properly make your characters come to life. What I didn't know it's that if you don't know your character 100%, then the character will not be seen as real. And something that is important to remember is that you have to surprise the readers but not in a bad way. You have to give them something out of the ordinary. Like in "Management of Grief" by Bharati Mukherjee where we meet an unexpected mother. The woman in the story is not quite the type that we observe nowadays; a feminist, energetic and independent woman. Quite the contrary, she's going through depression, she wishes the other daughter to be alive. Instead, she desperately waits for a miracle even when she knows it's impossible. Moreover, instead of trying to convince the old couple, she understands them and leaves them alone, because she knows how it is to wish things were different. This is a trait that makes her real because as humans we tend to do the irrational, and to make mistakes, to feel inferior and sometimes we wish to be left alone rather than receiving help.
ReplyDeleteVeronica Ruiz
Creating characters is what I have always struggled on when writing. My characters always seem to be flat because I simply don’t take enough time developing them as a person and creating their wants and needs. I generally have the plot and setting of the story ready before I decide who my main character will be. LaPlante’s chapter 10 gave me great insight and key points when it comes to creating a character. The small examples used within the chapter were the most helpful because it shows different types of character and different ways to introduce them. “The Management of Grief” started off with different characters being introduced and at first I had the understanding that the setting was a funeral. As the story continued and the suspense started to build up I understood what was happening. The author did a great job in bringing the character to life and helping the reader feel what the character was feeling.
ReplyDeleteMayela Montenegro