#2 Week 4 Character Traits/ Distinguishing between circumstances and character traits Pg.156-158

Summary

Character traits are qualities or habits that can be both negative and positive. Traits can be described in a character's facial expressions and actions and can help tell a lot about the character: a character who supplies moral support could have a caring, loving or sympathetic trait, or a character that is always up for a challenge and enjoys risk could have an ambitious or careless trait. Traits can describe a characters personality, thoughts and actions. It is important however, to be able to tell the difference between circumstances and traits, if an event happens to a character and does not have some kind of background story about how this event has affected the characters life in any way then the event is a circumstance but if the event is followed or brought up by a brief tale of how the character arrived there it would be considered a trait.

 Reader Response

I had never considered that facial expressions could be considered a trait I thought blemishes on a face could be considered a trait but never expressions. Before reading this my definition of trait was a special quality a character had but now I realize that it can be the way a character thinks, acts and expresses through their body language and facial expressions. Before reading this I also did not know that there was such a fine line between circumstances and character traits, and that if the reader looks deep enough within an author’s description of the character then traits are a bit easier to come across.