Hands Across the Novel Continues

We can do the same thing with Gone With the Wind, and let me tell you, GWTW is one long, long, book.

Beginning

(Term) Scarlet = (Class) Southern Belle + (distinguishing characteristics) flirt, in love with Ashley, desire to please mother and father wrapped around her finger, wealthy, self centered.

Middle

(Term) Scarlet = (Class) Southern Belle married to the wrong man, er men + (distinguishing characteristics) no longer able to flirt, in love with Ashley, family in chaos, wealthy, self centered.

Black Moment

(Term) Scarlet = (Class) Widow + (distinguishing characteristics) tempted and succumbs to flirting when she shouldn’t, in love with Ashley, family falling apart, lost wealth, wants to be taken care of and instead must take care of.

Ending

(Term) Scarlet = (Class) Wife of Rhett + (distinguishing characteristics) flirt, in love with Ashley, in charge of family, regaining wealth, cold.

One thing that should be clear in both these examples is that circumstances certainly affect, change, and build characterization.

Here’s your homework. It’s a bit tougher than watching two movies J Okay, choose a movie. I’ll suggest some… 1. When Harry Met Sally 2. Terminator 3. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 4. Titanic 5. French Kiss. You don’t need to use my suggestions, but choose a movie you think the masses has seen. Go ahead and plug in the heroine’s beginning, middle, black moment, and ending. See what you come up with. Feel free to post what you're doing via the comment area. I'll be glad to answer questions or make suggestion or simply applaud as long as it's a movie I've seen.

And, if someone chooses to comment about the same movie, it’s fun to see how you differentiate. When I’m doing this in a classroom setting, I have my students dissect the movie alone, then I put them into groups according to the same movie so they can see what they had in common and what one author thought important but another author thought unimportant.

Oh, and in case you're thinking, "I'm going to be original... I'll do the hero!"

Don't.

He's next week's lesson, and our approach to dissecting him will be a bit more directed.