A dynamic character is one who changes through the course of a story. Often, climaxes (or other important moments) are centered on characters’ transformation. This transformation often happens when the protagonist learns something about a) the world or b) him or herself.
Choose a story (movie, novel, story, poem, play, etc) and demonstrate this fact. Show us how a protagonist changes and what he or she learns about the world or him or herself that affects this change.
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In every story there is a plot, and in every plot there is a conflict. That conflict has a developing stage called rising action. Rising action takes you through the book, until you get to the heart of the conflict, or the climax.
The climax shows change of the main character. The change can happen either internally or externally. Sometimes the character has a mental change where they discover something about themselves. Other times the main character realizes something about the society they are in, or people around them.
One example of climax is A&P. The boy at the cash register watches these girls in the store. When the manager yells at them, the rising action begins. When the boy leaves the store, that is the climax. He discovers something about himself. He sees that he is an irrational person that just made a very bad desicion, and he's going to pay for it.
As posted, a climax is usually centered on characters' transformation. In "By the Waters of Babylon", John learns about the world when what he realizes turns his world upside down. The climax is at the point when John enters the room and discovers a dead, preserved "God", and realizes that the Gods his tribe had worshipped were really humans, like them. It must be rather traumatizing to see how your whole life has been an undetected lie, and in this, John learns another thing about the world: sometimes too much truth at one time can be harmful to society and its inner workings. It can cause it to fall apart at the seams, and the people distraught and not knowing who to trust or what to do. This changes Johns life, since he now has to keep the biggest secret of his life as the tribes new priest.
All good stories have at least one or more dynamic character(s). A lot of times, dynamic characters aren't used or are neglected. But this is not the case for all short stories, such as the tale "By the Waters of Babylon".
In this instance, a young priest and son of a priest named John who has a passion for knowledge discovers more than what he bargains for and changes to be more reserved in his hunger for knowledge. In this occurrence, the protagonist learns something about the world. That is that there were no gods, and that they were really people who died out. John also learns that his society forbids people to go east so that no one would figure out what John did. After this discovery, he comes home to tell his father, the head priest, to find out that he cannot tell anyone of this. This changes him from a naive young man with a passion for knowledge to a coming of age, more conserved individual. A dynamic character can, like the on in "By the Waters of Babylon", can help to thicken a plot and entice the audience.
As it has been already said, a good story usually has a few dynamic characters. Dynamic characters usually create the climax or conflict by the way they transform or change throughout the story.
An example would be the novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird." In this novel, Jem, a young boy around the age of 14 I believe, is the brother of the narrator, Scout. He beings the novel as a regular trouble-making teenager. However, once having to go through the experience of his father having to defend a black man who was being framed, he came to realize that the world around him was so cruel. And that he needed to be more mature and careful with the choices he made. Like how he started to notice that spying on the Radley's home was just cruel, since he was only doing it because he thought Boo Radley was a murderer.
Characters are very important to all movies, stories, plays, etc. In every good story the character grows and changes by learning something about themselves or the environment and world around them. A movie that comes to mind about the development of characters is The Pursuit of Happiness. In this movie Will Smith's character, Chris Gardner, starts off by loosing his wife and his house. He is forced try and make a living for himself and his son by trying to become a stock broker. Throughout the story Will Smith and his son endure many hardships that make their relationship stronger in the long run. Through all these ups and down, the protagonist learns how hard life is when you are starting out with nothing and trying to create something of yourself. In the end Chris turns into a very strong man with many important principles that define and shape him into the man he is today.
There can be two kinds of characters in stories, novels, plays, or movies: dynamic characters and static characters. Dynamic characters are ones that change through the course of the book. In "Wintergirls" by Laurie Halse Anderson the main character, Lia, is a dynamic character because she changes dramatically through the course of the book. The conflict of the story is that Lia's best friend died and she is having a lot of trouble dealing with it. They were in a competition of who could be the skinniest. They would make themselves throw up to feel better. After Lia's best friend died Lia was eating less and cutting herself. Even though her parents knew about her problem in trying to get skinny they tried to help but Lia never wanted it. After a long hard journey through the book Lia finally decides to get help and she recuperates.
I agree with Sydney that a good example of this is in the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird." There are many characters that change in this book, like Jem, but I believe that Scout changed the most. Scout is a young girl who looks up to her father, Atticus, and Jem. When Atticus takes on an African-American's case, Scout starts to get called names by her schoolmates and she overhears many people calling her father a "nigger-lover." Throughout the book Scout sees that the world around her is a harsh place and that a lot of hatred exists. She sees Atticus, her hero, being put down by others and it changes her. It makes her sadder, but it also makes her love him even more. By the end of the novel Scout is more matures and knows a lot more about human nature.
In the book Handle With Care, the character Amelia noticeably changes throughout the novel. Towards the beginning, Amelia was just like any other average thirteen year old girl. She had a best friend whom she did everything with, a loving family, and an enjoyable life.
Towards the middle of the novel, Amelia's life became very stressful when her mom filed a law suit against her best friend/doctor for wrongful birth. Amelia lost her best friend, her family was being torn apart, and her life wasn't very enjoyable. She became bulemic, she started cutting herself, and spent her free time alone. Amelia was becoming a shadow, and her parents were too focused on the law suit to notice, she no longer had her best friend, and her sister was too young to realize what was going on.
Towards the end of the book, Amelia realized that hurting her body like she did wasn't the right thing to do. She stopped hurting herself, and branched out into the world. She started to find some new friends who shared her interests and her family was slowly coming back together again.
This story showed Amelia learned something about herself and the world. She learned that by branching out and making friends, she can have a happy life with the people she gets along with. Amelia learned that the world won't stop for her, so she has to manage for herself, and keep herself out of trouble because it's her own personal responsibility.
-A few specific things set a well done story, and a mediocre story apart. Of those things the most important is character development. However, almost all stories have characters. What sets characters apart is if they are dynamic or static. A static character will never change throughout the whole story, making whatever physical or emotional journeys they took seem pointless. A dynamic character takes in all the things they have been exposed to during the story, and then changes because of them. This gives the journey they took a purpose, in turn making the reader feel like the book had a point.
-In the novel Tyrant the main character Dionysus is a very dynamic character. In the beginning of the novel he is a well respected warrior for the army of Syracuse. As he climes through the ranks of the army, he slowly notices how corrupt the government is. They only do the things that make them look good, often at the expense of thousands. Dionysus decides he would rather be the hated ruler, the tyrant that does what is best for the country, instead of being the loved ruler. By the end of the novel he begins to be corrupted by his power and eventually becomes more of a tyrant than he ever expected. Dynamic characters like Dionysus really add a lot to a book, and they also prove that dynamic characters don’t always change for the better.
Characters in good stories usually end up changing either for better or worse. I agree with Sydney when she said that the biggest character change in "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Haper Lee is in Jem. After his father agrees to defend an African American he faces alot of teasing. Jem has to learn to mature and grow up very quickley. He also has to learn to be a good and responsible brother to Scout. Jem always looks out for Scout and makes sure she doesn't get into many fights. HE always helps his dad, and changed alot from the beginning of the story when he acts childish and inmature like many kids do. Jem learns quickley that the right thing, like his dad defending an African American, can be very hard to do, but you should still do them.
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