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It may not be possible to sort every character in a story as a sorting hat does in Harry Potter into the correct category. In general, a clueless character may have more plans than we can see and a character with a plan may have many flaws as well as problems that get in the way of executing the plan. Then, there are characters who manage quite well without a firm plan. We can understand that there must be some reflection as the plan unfolds to see if it is effective, and we know that the ability to be flexible is important.
It is fun to consider some of the differences in characters in favorite stories.
Janet Evanovich’s comic character, Stephanie Plum, seems to often be clueless.
She manages to get dressed and give the hamster food, but her own fridge seldom has much in it to eat. Her gun is in the cookie jar. It is a good day when she starts out to catch a bail jumper with her handcuffs where she can find them. Yet, she has a big heart.
Her big heart and courage in knocking on the doors of strange criminals keep us reading. Her failures are sometimes sad and most often funny.
In mysteries, the detectives often say they don’t have a firm plan for finding the murderer or criminal, but that there are certain things they do that usually work. They follow leads, they talk with people, they consider what they learn and pull out another thread from the problem to follow. Spenser often admits he has no plan except to keep bothering people and Ian Rutledge is accused by Hamish of not having a plan. Yet, what they do seems sensible to the reader and of course, in the books, it works.
Sometimes a reader complains of too many coincidences rather than plans and sometimes we are turned off by a character whose plan is too concise and works too well.
It is the upsetting of the best laid plans that keeps the reader in suspense and causes us to turn the page to see what happens and what the character will do in response.
We can see the choice of plans a character has and be concerned about which one he or she may choose to follow. We can predict bad consequences and we want to beg the hero not to try that path. We breathe a sigh of relief if the good character's plan works and we feel sympathy when all goes wrong for good people with good intentions. We hope that sympathetic characters will learn from failure and be strong enough to try again with a new plan.
A terrifying book that I read recently is Pursuit by Thomas Perry. In the story a mass killer for hire is pursued by a man named Prescott who is known to use unorthodox methods and to never give up in pursuing a criminal.
Both the killer and the pursuer have plans and the plans go wrong for each, over and over in the story. It is fascinating and horrifying to watch and eventually we get to know both the criminal and the hero through the choices they make.
One of the most heart-breaking literary stories of all time, in my opinion, is Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. The lonely, misfit men who do back-breaking labor for others dream of a time when they can have their own farm and be their own bosses. Lennie will be trusted to feed the rabbits. George tells the story so well that it draws other men in to offer their savings so they can have a place to go when they can no longer work.
The unraveling of the dream is something we never forget. We have shared it with them and hoped for it even when we have been given clues all through the story that it might not happen.
Some stories begin at the end and with flashbacks show us the plan that fell through and why. In Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff is shown at his worst and also at his most vulnerable in the beginning of the story. The guest who has to stay the night witnesses much and then we hear the story from the beginning by Nelly Dean, the lady who witnessed it all.
Was the destruction of Heathcliff of his own making? Was it Cathy’s fault? Do Heathcliff's plans for revenge haunt us long after he has used them and succeeded? Part of his revenge was mitigated by Cathy's daughter in the end. Heathcliff could not foresee her kindness of heart to Hareton.
In similar stories do we see the failure as partially other's fault and have empathy for the black-hearted character or do we rejoice in the character’s downfall?
In Melville’s Moby Dick, Captain Ahab’s plan to continue on until he defeats the white whale leads to the destruction of his ship, his crew and himself. He refuses to back down from his plan even in the face of a request to help find a person lost at sea. Unable to let go of his plan of vengeance, he defies even the heavens and the cautions of his officers on the ship. Is Ahab a man with a purpose or is he clueless because his obsession does not allow him to really see any other possible ways to live?
In Rowling’s Harry Potter stories, the two young wizards Harry and Ron often seem clueless about many things. Yet, when the time comes in each book to face the evil Voldemort, they come through. Being clueless is not a sin in stories where those characters move forward to use their skills the best they can. In fact, Harry plans to make his friends strong in the arts of defense despite the lack of a good teacher and his plan works as his friends practice. He becomes a leader and grows stronger rather than being just the person who is left by Dumbledore in the dark most of the time.
Do people deserve to have a plan work out? Why should the universe deny us simple things? When we read The Princess Bride, we see the grandfather tell his grandson over and over that life is not fair. The characters have plans:
Prince Humperdinck, heir to the throne of Florin, who becomes engaged to Buttercup so that he can murder her to start a war with Guilder.
Inigo Montoya, a Spaniard who has trained in fencing for twenty years to the point of fighting left-handed so as to prolong his duels. He seeks revenge upon Count Rugen for the murder of his father.
Vizzini, a self-described criminal genius of Sicilian origin and the employer of Inigo and Fezzik. He is hired by Prince Humperdinck to capture and dispose of Buttercup.
Westley devises a successful plan to invade the castle during the wedding.
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It seemed to me in Stephenson’s Anathem that Erasmus had several plans and was able to carry them out. Things went wrong, it is true, but he would then form another plan and follow it. Sometimes he was put into a plan by friends, especially toward the end when he is chosen for the project. The plan then becomes very detailed and dangerous. As a reader, I wanted to say, “No way is this possible,” and yet he kept steadily on.
How often does a character that is in trouble say to his friend or victims, “I didn’t plan it this way!” The reader often says in reply, “None of us do.”
In many stories, the hero or heroine is reacting to plans that their families have made for them. They do not want to work for the family’s firm, or marry the person who has been chosen for them. They have a plan to study something else, to live in a big city, to travel or to marry someone of their own choice.
We like to encourage them to follow their dream, to try something new. We don’t want to see life beat them down without having a chance to see if they can paint, write, create music, or become a doctor. Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is a wonderful example of such stories.
In Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf presents the problem and the only possible way to destroy the ring, and Frodo accepts the plan to take the ring to Mordor. His basic plan is to just keep on taking one step after another. He tries to leave Sam behind, but Sam's plan is to stick to his friend like glue. His loyalty shines in the story and is the best plan of all.
What is most enjoyable is stopping the plans of villains. It may take a long time, but when it happens, we are satisfied.
In a complex story like The Phantom of the Opera, it sometimes hurts to see a plan destroyed. That the phantom was cruel and obsessed with Christine and teaches her how to sing to perform his music is scary, and we want to see Christine loved and cherished and freed from him by someone who has not been so twisted by fate, but it hurts to see the Phantom so lost, too.
Shakespeare’s Macbeth had a plan and then he let the witches and his wife influence him to his loss. Eventually, he forms a new plan which is to murder all who stand in his way and let the witches convince him that all will be well because he prefers to believe them despite his doubts.
Or would you consider Macbeth to be “clueless” because he allowed himself to be conned?
A modern story where the three main character's lives are interrupted first by the loss of their mother in a tornado and then many years later by the death of their father is a lesson in changing plans. I enjoyed the off-beat story Sing Them Home by Stephanie Kallos very much.
In a true story, The Log of the Sea of Cortez, John Steinbeck records the plan that he has with a friend to collect marine samples in the Gulf of California in 1940. It is an amazing story and it is fun to watch the plan unfold.
Which are your favorite clueless characters or which are your favorite characters with a plan?
Diaries of the week:
Write On! Getting Your Characters From Central Casting
by SensibleShoes
http://www.dailykos.com/...
plf515 has a book talk on Wednesday mornings early.
sarahnity’s list of DKos authors
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