Application of literary elements: Characters on Charles Baxter’s 'Gryphon'

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Character

Fictional characters often appear to readers as real people with authentic actions, thoughts and speech even though they are an author’s construct, intended to help a story to develop, to deepen and to come to life. Writer Robert DiYanni reasons in his book Literature: Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama that readers have to look into characters in order to find out more about “their function and significance in the story.” (54) But what exactly is a character? The website Merriam-Webster Online defines character as “one of the persons of a drama or novel”, and “a person marked by notable or conspicuous traits.” Victoria Henderson, a student of the University of North Carolina, further points out within the Glossary of Literary Terms that “[c]haracters are extremely important because they are the medium through which a reader interacts with a piece of literature. Every character has his or her own personality, which a creative author uses to assist in forming the plot of a story or creating a mood.” According to DiYanni, characters can be identified as major and minor, static and dynamic (54). The major character is the dominating core of a story and is also known as protagonist “whose conflict with an antagonist may spark the story’s conflict.” (54) Minor characters are generally used to support and illuminate the more significant individuals within the story (54). David Madden, professor at Louisiana State University, further suggests in the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia that “authors describe the more simple characters in novels with no more than a few phrases that identify the character’s most important traits. These characters have little capacity for personal growth.” Here, the reader can already refer to implemented changes in a character: a static character does not accomplish major changes throughout the story while a dynamic character, as written by Marilyn H. Stauffer, Instructor at the University of

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South Florida, in her Outline on Literary Elements, “experiences a basic change in character through the events of the story. This change is internal and may be sudden, but the events of the plot should make it seem inevitable.” Stauffer also classifies characters by their “multitude of traits and behaviors that give the literary character the complexity of a human being.” She determines flat characters which are not fully developed and usually only show one side, as well as round characters which are thoroughly formed, reveal many different traits, and seem real and interesting to the reader.

DiYanni adds that there can be more than one character dominating a story (54). He also warns the reader not to “automatically equate major characters with dynamic ones or minor characters with static ones” (54-55) since each classification stands out individually when it comes to characterization of a story. DiYanni defines characterization as “the means by which writers present […] character” and gives six techniques helping readers to reveal character: after a “narrative summary without judgment” and a “narrative description with implied or explicit judgment”, it is important to investigate physical looks, action, speech and consciousness of a character (56).

Let us bring those dry definitions and theories to life by looking at the short story “Gryphon” from the author Charles Baxter. According to James Luxon, webmaster of Charles Baxter’s Homepage, “[t]he narrative takes the reader to a 4th grade classroom where an unusual substitute teacher mesmerizes her class with a description of a gryphon and predictions of her students' future.” The story provides a multitude of characters; however, regular instructor Mister Hibler, substitute teacher Miss Ferenczi, and narrator Tommy are sufficient to represent the general classifications of character.

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By applying DiYanni’s techniques, the reader discovers that Mister Hibler is a fourth- grade teacher who gets sick one day in class. He leaves school to recover and returns three days later to continue his lesson. At the end of the story, the reader learns that Mister Hibler is absent once again; however, the narrator does no mention any reasons. After including implied and explicit judgment as well as a closer look at the character’s action, speech and consciousness, the reader finds out that Mister Hibler is an accurate and reliable teacher. He has a precise lesson plan (“painstakingly outlined”) (258), lets the class stand in formation when the day is over (255), wears a tie (255), and is hardly interested in “woman’s talk” since it is “unserious and not suited for school.” (264) The author does not provide much information about the character of Mister Hibler. It is not fully developed, does not change throughout the story and it also does not appear often. Consequently, Mister Hibler is a minor character with flat and static features. He emerges neither interesting nor important. It is plausible to assume that he is, as noted above, primarily there to support und illuminate the protagonist.

But who is the protagonist? Let us scrutinize Miss Ferenczi with the help of DiYanni’s techniques. Miss Ferenczi is a substitute teacher, who has just moved to Five Oaks, Michigan, the setting of the short story. Miss Ferenczi teaches the fourth-graders for two days, telling fabulous stories rather than teaching truthful facts of science and arts. A couple of months later, she surprisingly appears again, telling fortune for several pupils. A prophecy about one student’s death leads to her dismissal.

Miss Ferenczi has “fine, light hair […] done up in […] a chignon.” (256) She drives a “rusting green Rambler American”, wears gold rimmed glasses, owns a checkerboard lunchbox as well as a purple purse, and does not mind a green blouse combined with a pink scarf (256, 262, and 265). Her face has “marionette lines”, which remind narrator Tommy of Pinocchio