Research Paper on:
Literature and Characterization

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
This is not to state that the plot is not an important literary device, and to be truthful, it is a necessary element. However, the character is what is remembered  long after the actual events have drifted from the mind. In her short story: Through the Tunnel, Doris Lessing creates memorable characters utilizing some of the techniques that authors use  in portraying their characters, namely those of: appearance, name, speech, behavior, thoughts and emotions, biography, images, dialogue and authorial intrusion. Though not all of these elements may be evident in  every authors character, it can be said that good number of them can be spotted. This only stands to reason, actually. If the author is not intimately familiar and acquainted  with her characters, then how can she adequately explain their behavior in certain plotted situations? The short story begins in the wintertime when Jerry, who is eleven, discovers a secret  tunnel that extends below the ocean. After watching some local boys swimming through it, he decides to give it a try. The dangers are very real, but Jerry, because of  various circumstances becomes convinced that to not try would be a far worse fate. In accomplishing the task, it can be stated that Jerry is able to face his own  fears, and in doing so leaves behind his childhood and begins the journey toward young adulthood. One of the earliest devices that the author uses is her description  of Jerry by his relationship with his mother. The reader is told, through the use of third person omniscient point of view, that Jerrys mother is devoted to him because  she was a widow. "He was an only child, eleven years old. She was a widow. She was determined to be neither possessive nor lacking in devotion"(Lessing, 1997). This