Define and Describe a Character

Westerfeld, Scott. Uglies. New York: Simon Pulse, 2005. Print.

The main character of the novel I am current reading is called Tally. The three characteristics that best describe her are:

- Unfaithful 

Synonyms: disloyal, dishonest

Antonyms: faithful, loyal

"She could hardly sit here enjoying the Smokies' admiration if she'd just betrayed them all."

Tally has made a promise to her friend Shay that she would never tell anybody where her friend was running away to. Tally breaks her promise to become beautiful for god. However, the exposure of Shay's secret, put hers the life of tuns of peoples in risk.


- Brave

Synonyms: courageous, fearless

Antonyms: fearful, afraid

"The wild around her seemed so much larger, the churning river full of power, the forest huge with the secrets hidden in its black depths. She allowed herself a long stare at the city lights before she stepped onto shore, wondering when she would see her home again."

Tally had to travel trough a scaring and empty forest all by herself to achieve her objective. Even tough she was going to betray her friend, Tally faced her fears to get what she wanted.

 
- Innocent

Synonyms: immature, childish

Antonyms: mature, wise

"Like a mirror, but in close-up, it showed Tally as she looked right now: puffy eyed and disheveled, exhaustion and  red stratches marking her face, her hair sticking out in all directions, and her expression turning horrified as she beheld her own appearance.
- That's you Tally. Forever.
- Turn it off...
- Decide.
-Okay, I'll do it. Turn it off."

She made a decision under pressure that putted the lives of lots of people in risk just because she wanted to pass trough a surgery to become beautiful. What in my opinion, doesn't really matter on someone's life.

Identifing elements of a good story

Some elements are extremely necessary to a short novel. The most important for me are:


Brevity - No many details, it makes the novel more easily to be read. Billie Letts's novel have a lot of dialogues, so the narrator doesn't show up very often, which avoids to many unnecessary information.


Theme - The story makes the readers believe that family is much more than blood relations, it is "where the heart is" as the name of the book mentions.



Obstacle - Part of conflict, when the character face problems. In the novel I am reading, Where the heart is, the biggest obstacle happens in the beginning of the story, when the main character, Novalee, is left by her own.
"She knew he was gone, knew before she reached the door. She could see it all, see it as if she were watching a movie. She could see herself running, calling his name-the parking space empty, the Plymouth gone." (Billie Letts, 15.)



Turning point - The point of the history in which everything changes, in which big decisions are made and can't  be undone.
"Her baby was coming... But she wasn't ready. Why, she wondered, had she waited until the last minute? Where had the time gone? Two months had passed since Willy Jack had dumped her - and she had done nothing. She hand't look for a place to live, hadn't figured out how to make a living." (Billie Letts, 75.)

Foreshadowing - the reader is given clues of what is happening next. At the novel Where the heart is, the story happens in two different places and then they connect together. But even before it happens, we can have ideas of what is going to happen, because we know what each character had done.