Oftentimes in the world we live today, we read books and articles on varying topics, but how often do we stop and notice the characters? How often do you spend time thinking about what it means for a person to create that character on the page? Authors all around the world have been developing characters in stories for centuries. Some characters draw us in, while others are designed specifically to make us hate them with a burning passion, but what allows these characters to make us feel this way?
The development of a character is often based off of an author's experience with a similar type of person. Mainly, an author focuses on character traits they know and can describe in detail, or ones that have been used previously. This is a tactic authors use to make a character portray a specific type of person in order to invoke a specific response in their readers. It’s called focusing on the symbolic nature of a character. A great example of this comes from a book many would consider a classic.
J.R.R Tolkien’s "The Hobbit" portrays the character of Smaug using this symbolic technique. The masterfully crafted story takes the character of the dragon and puts it into its symbolic stereotype. The character of a dragon is oftentimes portrayed as a large, fire-breathing demonic character, but as an author will tell you, that isn’t always the case. It's generally easier to place something in its symbolic stereotype rather then attempt to break the standard and force it into a different position. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it can help readers identify the characters being represented. If a reader began a book with a beautiful princess in it, oftentimes it is not the main antagonist they're reading about.
It takes careful precision and a steady mind to develop a character against their usual stereotypes, but some authors can take even the most basic character and flip them to their opposites. This technique breaks the mold of a character, and causes many readers to have to do a double take in order to notice the change. If an author switches the role of a character suddenly, it can cause a reaction in the reader, and whether positive or negative, the author intended that specific reaction. Mystery works are known for this kind of technique being used in order to deter the reader from being capable of guessing who the killer could be or how the mystery will be solved.
Character roles play a large part in the reading of books and stories, and the author specifically intends for each character to pull on your emotional strings. Authors will use the symbolic nature of a character in order to cause a reader to feel a certain way. So the next time you get irritated at a character for being the shy, aloof guy, remember that the author made him that way for a reason, and making a character can make or break a story.
