Character Arc - Blog (July)

“You’ll have a tale or two to tell when you come back.”

“Can you promise that I will come back?”

“No. And if you do, you will not be the same.”

-

Gandalf and Bilbo, The Hobbit

They’re in the books we read, the films we adore, and even the songs we cherish. Character arcs are the journey a character goes through over the course of their experience. They face challenges and overcome obstacles that shape them.

In this blog post, I’ll break down the components of a driven character arc and what factors can contribute to it. At the start of a book or film, there is always a before snapshot of a person who we can later compare with an after shot come the end. Our most beloved and hated characters are moulded by their environments and those around them. Therefore, we can separate these into two groups: world and characters.

The two primary aspects of a character arc are flaws and lies. Protagonists are faced with lie/s they believe about themselves or the world around them, yet they overcome it or realise it. However, not every protagonist resists their flaws. Most do, but particularly in tragedies they will not. 

The opposite of these two aspects are strengths and truths. Over the course of a book or film, it’s common to see characters conquer their flaws and lies, and embrace the end product of reversed traits or feelings. Every genre has character arcs, whether it be romance, horror, fantasy, or sci-fi. 

Examples of texts in which characters are transformed by the environment around them would be: Life of Pi by Yann Martel and Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. Both of these epic novels have been adapted into major motion pictures. 

In the former example, Pi, the shipwrecked son of a zoo owner, is forced to share his rowboat with a tiger and is stranded out at sea for over two-hundred days. His natural environment allows both his resilience and his spiritual side to deepen, whereas at the start he took the pleasures of everyday life for granted. 

In the second example, Kya is a young lady who lives in the marshes of eastern North Carolina. She shares the habitat with many beautiful creatures and experiences some unwelcome trespassers. The environment teaches Kya to be resilient, independent, and observative. In the beginning, Kya displays a couple of these traits on different levels, but they develop across the course of the book.

Regarding characters as a cause for an arc, this is easier to analyse because it’s simply how the people around the protagonist transform them. 

Two strong examples of arcs influenced by relationships are The Hobbit and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. In these books, Bilbo and Harry grow over time and experience thanks to Gandalf and the Dwarves, and Hagrid, Dumbledore, Ron, and Hermione. By the end of the texts, they learn loyalty, courage, and friendship, among other traits.

Distinguishing between a character’s flaw and lie can be difficult, as they overlap at times, or are unclear, particularly if the book is part of a series. The way to analyse this is to recall their before snapshot. Who were they at the very beginning? What challenges have they overcome, and how has it changed them? How are they transformed in the end? 

One of the interesting things about crafting character arcs is they can be influenced by our own life experiences. Many authors choose to write stories partially inspired by their own experiences - some even choosing to express their work as memoiristic. The name for this genre is autofiction. One such example is Australian writer Trent Dalton’s Boy Swallows Universe. Eli Bell holds some of the personal experiences that Dalton had, like having an ex-convict babysitter.

A strong perk to blending fiction with real-life experience is it makes the characters more authentic, especially when faced with real-world issues like health challenges, relationship fractures, and war. It’s encouraged to achieve a full-circle arc, the author still does their research into the complexities of the flaw and lie the protagonist holds.

The true test to see whether the protagonist will overcome their false belief about the world or themselves is when they’re faced with the challenge. Though there are scenes where the battle is all about action, that just shows the external conquering. To fully show that the character has transformed, there should be an internal acknowledgment of what they now understand. 

One of my favourite books, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, shows this. The main character Charlie struggles with low self-worth, repressed trauma, and guilt. With the support of his family and his friends, he’s able to overcome these challenges, thus erasing his lie that events of the past were his fault. It’s in the last few scenes that we can be totally sure that Charlie is mentally in a better place and is more at peace, although he still has the odd tendency to think dark thoughts - he knows he’s stronger than them and can tell between the lie and the truth. Overall, the characters around him transform Charlie into a better version who is stronger than his struggles.

To recap, a character arc is the personal journey a character experiences that transforms them. They are either influenced by their environment/world or the characters they interact with - in most cases, at least. There are other types, which are clever and outside of the box. Arcs are no easy feat, but they always have a flaw and lie attached, which the character often overcomes, thus finding their strength and the truth. They can be inspired by the author’s real-life experiences, making the journey more authentic. 

There are two instances of conquering struggles in a story: the external and internal. Sometimes flaws/ lies and external/internal overcomings overlap, but there is always a before and after snapshot of characters - who they are and what they believe/pursue/do in the beginning and then what’s changed about them at the end.

Next time you’re reading a book or watching a film, take that snapshot of the protagonist/s at the start, then compare them to their end self/ves. What is your real-life character arc looking like and how does that cause you to perceive characters in stories?

Until next time,

Campbell Anderson