Character Development
The article I chose for this insight post is “The Boy Behind the Mask”, and I decided on this article because I think the author did a really good job with the character development with this story. The author, Tom Hallman Jr., faces a unique challenge when writing this article, because the main character of this story is disfigured, so Hallman has to find the right balance of describing this person, but not being too mean and hurtful.
The first lesson about character development is that Hallman doesn’t just describe the character right off the bat, he alludes that this child is not a normal child, leaving the reader wanting to know more. He uses words to describe the character in the opening paragraphs that tell the personality of the kid with words like, “thin frame” “Most 14-year-old boys” “He moves like smoke” “dim light is his refuge”. This is important because it subtly tells the reader that Sam is different, and that he does not like attention.
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The second is the use of a non-linear timeline. The author jumps around to different points in time, and I don’t think we would have as much sympathy for Sam if they just told his story in chronological order. By showing the effects of Sam not fitting in at school early on in the story, before his medical background, we really get a better understanding of the outcasting he feels. “The wavy-haired girl subtly, discreetly, falls behind. When the boy slows to match her step, she hurries ahead. Sam lets her go. He walks alone”. This quote really shows how Sam felt about school at the age he was at.
Finally, the author kept bringing up Sam starting high school throughout the story, especially with his surgery. “But in a month, on Aug. 24, 2000, the freshmen would register at Grant High School” “ And Sam was only 10 weeks from his first day at Portland’s Grant High School, a day when he would walk into a mob of judgmental adolescents who’d never seen him before”, the reason for doing this is because the whole time during this story Sam just wanted to fit in, and going to high school was the ultimate test. This gave us a insight as to why Sam opted to do such a risky surgery, and really gave us a good look at the motivations for this character.
