Carrie - Lesson 3 (Characterization)

Characterization in Carrie: Here's another gem describing Carrie's mother.

Momma was a very big woman, and she always wore a hat. Lately her legs had begun to swell, and her feet always seemed on the point of overflowing her shoes. She wore a black cloth coat with a black fur collar. Her eyes were blue and magnified behind rimless bifocals. She always carried a large black satchel purse and in it was her change purse, her billfold (both black), a large King James Bible (also black) with her name stamped on fron in gold, and a stack of tracks secured with a rubber band. The tracts were usually orange, and smearily printed. (54)

I'm not sure King would go for such an explicit description paragraph now, but this very servicable paragraph shows us a lot about Momma. It starts with a physical description of her, then goes into her purse and ends with the tracts ("smearily printed" as if the ideas printed on them are a bit askew). Everything is there because it demonstrates Margaret White's personality. A fine example of "show don't tell."

Exercise: Find a passage where a character is described. Does every element describe more than physical features but the character's personality, past, or motivation?