Examples Of Direct Characterization In Mosquitoland

The book Mosquitoland is about a troublesome young teenage girl who has a lot of family issues and was written by David Arnold. It was written in first person point of view by a sixteen year old named Mary Iris Malone or Mim Malone for short. The book starts off with Mary living with her father and new stepmother after her parent’s divorce. As a teenager, these major life changes do affect your behavior and emotions big time! Shortly after her parents split, Mim finds out that her mother is sick. She leaves her house and heads out for a thrill seeking journey where she encounters new friends, finds love, and explores how the real world works. Reading this story, I could understand exactly how she was feeling because she was basically writing in a journal. Since she was the “author” she would directly characterize what she was doing or how she felt. An example of a direct characterization would be Mary’s main line “I am Mary Iris Malone and I am not okay.” This is stating how she is feeling or what her emotion was at the time. If you actually take the time to read the book, you’d understand what she means by “I am not okay.”

An example of indirect characterization would include “...Know yourself. Love yourself. Be a good friend. Be a kind of hope and substance…” This doesn’t exactly tell you about Mim, but it explains what she aspires to be. She wants to be a wise young lady, which the author doesn’t come right out and say it, but he implies that those are her goals. Once again if you read the whole book, you learn that Mary actually achieves her goal and turns out to be a wonderful person who figures out what life is through traveling. Another example would be aquote such as “ Sometimes you walk into a room one person, and when you come out the other side, you’re someone else altogether.” I believe this uncovers or foreshadows that she will change throughout the