Characters in Conflict (1972)

[music] [music] [music] >> STEP RIGHT UP. STEP RIGHT UP. COME ONE, come all. You, sir, you look like a rider to me. Go right inside. Here they are, folks, the beginners' all-time favorite characters, ROCKY AND DEBBIE BLOB. THE BLOBS ARE JUST so tall, have this color eyes and that color hair. SEE HOW THEY MOVE JUST LIKE REAL PEOPLE. When they are lonely, sad, or happy, they sigh, cry, or grin. The blobs wouldn't do anything you wouldn't do, folks. They're the world's easiest characters. THE BLOBS HAVE EVERYTHING. Blobs have everything, [music] except life. And the reason blobs cannot live is that they are born [music] in the writer's mind fully grown. The writer who wants to create believable characters must know them [music] thoroughly. What forms a fictional character is what forms a real [music] person, his past. Each [music] individual grows up in a world that is infinitely complex. Ideas, urges, threats, and rewards come to him from all directions. Sweetie, girls don't behave that way. Mama loves you. >> Let's see your report card. Beauty is truth. >> God made the world in seven days. >> Don't be like your father. The square of the hypotenuse is equal to good fellows. Sam's a dirty communist. That's bad, son. Eating meat builds muscles. Do that and I'll punch you in the nose. >> so he knows. Don't act like a Early to bed and early to rise. >> make friends that way. That's a shame, troublemaker. Be quiet. Only by reflecting on a character's past can a writer get to know that character from the inside and begin to see the world from his viewpoint. I believe this, I don't believe that. I like this, I don't like that. That's beautiful, that's ugly. This is good, that's bad. I'm handsomer than him, he's tougher than me. They're going to love me for this, they're going to laugh at me if I do that. I'm all right, what's wrong with me anyway? >> [music] >> The writer must be able to see the world from the character's viewpoint. Like any individual, this character does not see the world as it is, but as he is. His concepts of himself and the world are all he has to go on, so they are vitally important to him. Therefore, anything that agrees with his concepts he welcomes. You know, I'm I'm glad you feel that way, too. So few people really see the truth about those matters. >> But anything that hits his concepts he tends to resist. Women's lib is for the birds. They're tired. >> People do not see the world as it is, but as they are. This new building represents only one tiny aspect of the world. But listen to the way three different people regard it. I must say it's a great-looking building, even if I was the architect. Oh, there's that dreadful place. I hope that dentist doesn't say the tooth has to come out. I'm glad Grandma and Granddad can't see that commercial monstrosity. The corner looked better when their old house stood there. Each person sees the building and life itself in a highly personal way. Stories are about people trying to cope with life as they see it. Life often presents a conflict between the way a person imagines himself and the world and what he actually encounters in the world. Most dramatic stories ask the same question. How does a particular character deal with a conflict? For a simple example, take the uncomplicated character, the action cowboy. He has a fairly rigid point of view. He believes that fighting is manly, that losing is disgraceful, and that quickness is next to godliness. Then he meets an opponent reputed to be stronger and faster than he is. He faces an external conflict. Not only his life, but his entire value structure is threatened as the conflict tests his character. But happy day, he proves to be faster than his opponent, thus passing an external test of character and pleasing all of his like-minded readers. A serious writer might give the Westerner [music] an internal conflict. He could have a personal sense of justice and human dignity, but an equally strong desire to get along with others and avoid trouble. Suppose such a man found himself in a lynching party that was about to hang two men without trial. >> [music] >> The situation puts two elements of his nature in conflict. Does he speak out for justice? Or does he remain quiet and avoid trouble? This is somewhat the situation in Walter Van Tilburg Clark's novel, >> [music] >> The Ox-Bow Incident. Characters in conflict tend to express their attitudes and emotions to reveal their strengths and weaknesses. So the real value of conflict [music] or dramatic situation is the opportunity it presents for revealing character. Will this Westerner [music] let the hanging proceed? Or will he oppose the crowd and try to stop it? By his actions, we will learn to know him. We will not solve his dilemma here. For further [music] study of how conflict tests and reveals character, you may read The [music] Ox-Bow Incident. Make characters interestingly [music] different and plausibly similar. How does one go about presenting a character? Let's imagine a come-as-a-character costume party. Present our guests representing such known characters as Huckleberry Finn, Scarlett O'Hara, and Captain Ahab. Others, like the man in white, are new and unknown. We might think of the writer as a host with the duty of presenting new characters to the reader. >> [music] >> The reader, however, arrives on the scene a total stranger and just a bit apprehensive. A glimpse of the setting may suggest something of the nature of the party, but [music] it's the character she wants to know about. The writer has to make the introduction, but if he puts himself between them and simply talks about a character, the reader and character will never really meet. What the writer has to do is stand back, let the character make his own impression by what he does and says. 50-yard dash, 100-yard dash. I don't really like track too much. What first stirs the curiosity of the reader may be a difference in the character's outlook. You wouldn't even go across the street to see a track meet, but you would probably read books about the Olympic games and think that they were great. Well, yes, but that's a little bit different, don't you think? >> But eventually, what will hold the reader's attention is the discovery of similarities, of things they have in common. >> Yes, but I really didn't think too much about it. Oh, you know, I felt the same way, that it was a big put-on or something. Oh. Yeah, so, you Yes, I had that feeling exactly. Mhm. Differences make a character unique. Human weaknesses or similarities to us make him universal. The original Huckleberry Finn had that difference in his undisciplined, free spirit. Yet underneath, he was similar to our concepts of all children in his gullible, superstitious innocence. The selfish and flirtatious Scarlett O'Hara dominated Gone with the Wind by the difference in her character. We could easily dismiss another person with her self-centeredness, but Scarlett revealed the human girl underneath in the way she faced every difficulty with "I'll think about that tomorrow." Captain Ahab, hunter of the white whale Moby Dick, was certainly different, so uniquely obsessed that to [music] some of us he seemed not quite human. But author Herman Melville wisely told Ahab's story through the eyes of Ishmael, whose fears were more similar to what we might feel in Ishmael's place. Meetings between characters with similar behavior are friendly, but undramatic. While differences in behavior lead to comedy or conflict. What else is gained by making a character different? >> Order. Gentlemen, we'll put it to a vote. Yes. Yes. Yes. No. >> [clears throat] >> Well, whose opinion shall we hear first? Interest is attracted by a distinguishing difference. This has been our greatest year ever. We've accomplished everything we ever set out to accomplish this year. And so, in conclusion, I'd like to say, and I think I speak for all the senior players of this team, thank you, Coach Smith, for your dedication to the game and your inspiring leadership. >> [applause] >> The next to speak will be Bob Benson. It is my personal opinion that Coach Smith and his win-at-any-cost attitude leave much to be desired. He attracts our interest by a distinguishing difference. But we need to find the universal humanness in him, too. It's it's not easy for me to stand here and say this in front of you. In fact, I'm trembling. For sympathy and rapport, a character needs that touch of humanness. We have not yet made the man in white a fully developed character. What do you think? Is he the person he pretends to be? If you were to write about him, could you develop his Hold it. I want to say something. I don't want you to write about me because you don't know me. Actually, I can be talking about one thing and thinking about something else. I can be pretending to have a good time when I'm not at all. What I'm saying is I've been thinking all my life, and most of what I think I keep to myself. I don't completely understand myself yet. So, how could you understand me? As the man said, you got to know a person's past. You got to show what he is by what he does. And you got to see that he's like everybody else. Yet yet, you got to know him well enough to see how and why he is different. So, don't write about me. Write about people you know. Anything else to say? Just period. >> [music]