Novak Essay

1000 words

The Outsiders is all about characters — and we learn about our dynamic and static characters through direct and indirect characterization.

Your job is to write a scene from the book from another character’s POV. It must be in the 1st person, and you must use direct and indirect characterization to show the audience which character you chose and how they are thinking and feeling about the events of the book.

Dally’s thoughts as he runs into the burning church
Sodapop’s POV when he finds Johnny after Johnny is beaten up by the Soc’s for the first time
Darry’s POV when he hits Ponyboy and realizes he’s missing
Bob’s POV when he’s dying by the fountain
Cherry’s POV when she realizes she’s in love with Dallas

This is a creative piece! Use the elements we’ve talked about for the novel — dialogue, description, scene building, tension. The scene itself should be at least 700 words.

Then in a short reflective essay, reveal who your character is and describe how you decided to characterize them, showing the places in your scene where you attempted to reveal characterization.