Getting to Know Characters

Today in class we were discussing the first scene of Fences. We find out a lot about Troy just from his dialogue. We imagine him as dominating, an exaggerator, a storyteller. And all of these things we infer from the dialogue alone. It's interesting how an author can help us get to know the character through different aspects, but what the character says can give us a lot of insight about them just from a few words. This discussion in class made me think of my choice novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The main character, Charlie, tells the story through letters he writes, and, in my opinion, it is his tone and his dialogue that helps you to get to know him the best. It really shows how he thinks about things and how he perceives the world. Because he is describing his own actions, we can see how he really sees himself and the people around him. His tone is quite innocent, but as he goes along, you can tell from some changes in tone that he is getting more experienced. He goes through a lot of emotional turmoil, and you can tell just how much certain things affect him by the tone he uses. In this way, the voice of the character is a key factor in how we imagine them to be.