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5
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activity Characterization
Describe yourself to someone who does not know you by writing just a few lines
about your experiences at the following times in your life. Be sure to include some
Narrative
physical details of yourself at the time, but also some dialogue and blocking that might
help reveal something about you at that time. You might be tempted to rely only on
direct characterization because that is often the easiest way to communicate details
of characterization, but consider how you might reveal aspects of yourself through
indirect characterization as well. After you have written your pieces, go back and label
examples of direct and indirect characterization in different colors. Choose at least two
of the following times in your life to describe:
• When you were a very young child (based on pictures or accounts of family or friends)
• When you were in elementary or middle school
• This year

Conflicts

The purpose of just about every narrative is to recount a conflict the author faced
and how that conflict was either overcome or not. Sometimes these conflicts are with
other characters, other times they are with larger forces such as nature or society. In
narrative, they oftentimes involve an inner conflict. Here are the main types of conflicts,
and how they play out in “Mother’s Tongue”:

• Narrator v. another character. There is conflict between Autman and his uncle,
who clearly wants him to be able to play basketball, despite Autman’s lack of
interest and skill. Uncle Tan keeps pushing and pushing until he finally gives up.
Autman is also in conflict with his mother, whose advice he doesn’t appreciate until
he is much older.
• Narrator v. society. Autman describes how society’s expectations for a tall
black man at the time were limiting and constraining, especially since he was not
interested in or able to meet them.
• Narrator v. nature. In general, this type of conflict deals with facing challenges in
nature, like climbing a mountain, surviving a snow storm, and so on. In this case,
the narrative begins with the narrator’s struggle with his own body: tall, gangly,
uncoordinated. In the beginning of this narrative, biology is — in a sense — the
protagonist’s natural enemy.
• Narrator v. self. This is the most common type of conflict in a narrative. Because
we spend so much time in the narrator’s head in most narratives, this is almost
always the one to look out for when determining the point that the author is trying
to make. Does Autman have the inner strength and confidence to finally listen to his
mother and to become a scholar and a writer? In the last sentences of his piece, he
confirms that he has what it takes to address this conflict.

136
Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample.
Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.

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