Reading a Character Analysis

Before you begin your own writing, you should read an example created by another student to get a sense of what a character analysis looks and sounds like. As you read, note how the writer describes the character, explores themes, and cites evidence from the literature. Click on the side notes to study these features.

Reading a Student Model

This student sample analyzes the main character from Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. The analysis highlights how the character changes throughout the story and how the changes reflect some of the main themes of the work. The overall structure includes a beginning paragraph, multiple body paragraphs, and an ending paragraph. The writer uses source citations and discussions of theme to reveal qualities of the character.

Sample Character Analysis

Warm-Up for Analyzing a Character

Who is your favorite character from a story or novel? Someone with amazing abilities who does astounding things? Someone with major flaws who overcomes them in surprising ways? Is the person likable? Intelligent? Funny? Are other qualities more important? You could answer these questions in many ways because great characters, like real people, are multilayered and complex.

In this unit, you will peel back the layers of a character from a story or novel. In addition to the person's actions, you'll analyze the character's mind, body, and spirit to discover what makes the person tick. In the process, you may even get closer to understanding what really makes a great literary character.

What Is a Character Analysis?

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A character analysis is a response to literature that looks closely at one or more characters from a story or novel. A successful analysis considers different aspects of a character, provides textual evidence about the person, and explains what these details mean in the larger context of the work.

In this unit, you will pick a key character from a work of fiction that you know well. The lessons that follow will help you closely analyze the character, express an overarching idea about the person, and find evidence to support your position.

Thinking About Character Traits

One of the challenges of writing a character analysis is drawing conclusions about someone you have met only through words on a page. You have to rely on text evidence, things the character does and says in the story. Of course, we all make similar judgments about people we've met only in other media, for example favorite icons from music, sports, politics, or movies.

You can warm up your character-analysis muscles by answering interview questions from the perspective of a famous person. Create answers as best you can based on what you know about the person. Here's an example to get you started:

Assessing with an Explanatory Rubric

A test grader will use a rubric to score your on-demand writing. A rubric lists the features the grader is looking for at different levels of performance. If you understand the kinds of rubrics that graders use, you will better understand how to write responses that score well.

Writing an Essay for Assessment

Some tests ask you to write an essay response to short stories and poems you have closely read. The following activity will help you practice.

Read the writing prompt.

Answer the PAST questions.

Purpose?

Audience?

Subject?

Type?