Character Clues

Character Analysis

Speech and Dialogue

In a book in which the main character moves from a non-English speaking childhood in China to a very English-centric childhood in the United States, you can bet speech and dialogue contribute to characterization. One of the ways Shirley's transition from insider to outsider is marked upon her arrival in America, after all, is by the way that she does—or as the case initially is, does not—speak English.

Along these lines, though, Shirley's transition from outsider to insider can also be appreciated through speech. Early on, for example, Shirley has trouble getting a shop owner to understand what she wants when she goes to buy her dad cigarettes because she can't enunciate the brand name in a way that he understands:

She opened her mouth wide to pronounce her first English words for an American. "Rukee Sike!"

But instead of giving her the cigarettes, he rattled off a string of nonsensical sounds.

What if she couldn't make him understand? (2.115-17)

At this stage of her journey, Shirley has an intensely difficult time communicating with people who only speak English, and it's a very real barrier to her ability to navigate the world around her.

Later on, however, she finds herself in a different position. Check it out:

She still spoke Chinese with her parents, but even then foreign words were substituted for those that did not come easily. Mother corrected her. "Make an effort, Shirley. You must not forget you are still Chinese." (9.10)

By "foreign words," both English and Spanish are being referred to, languages Shirley encounters on the regular and, at this point, makes good sense of. Her mother encourages her not to lose her ability to speak Chinese, and with it, to speak easily with the people in her life for whom it remains the most comfortable language.

Actions

Adjusting to life in America complicated, and just like with speech, actions clue us into where Shirley is in her adjustment process. For instance, when she goes to school for the first time and meets with the principal, she has the following non-verbal exchange:

Suddenly the principal shut one eye, the right one, then opened it again.

Was this another foreign custom, like shaking hands? It must be proper if a principal does it, Shirley thought. She ought to return the gesture, but she didn't know how. So she shut and opened both eyes. Twice. (3.17-18)

We know the principal is winking—and insofar as we know this, we also know she's being friendly—but Shirley has no clue what's going on here. While the narrator clues us into Shirley's confusion ("Was this another foreign custom, like shaking hands?"), we get a sense of just how baffled Shirley is through her physical response of closing and opening both of her eyes twice. Though she and the principal have both used their eyes deliberately, they are on completely different pages when it comes to why they've done so.

Actions also clue us into other characters, though, particularly when it comes to the other kids at school. Check this out:

Why else did the class, which welcomed her so warmly at first, ignore her so now? True, she could only speak a few words at a time, and most often no one could even guess at the meaning of those. (4.1)

The class stops paying attention to the new kid, and as they do, we are clued into just how not on their radar Shirley quickly becomes. No one is going out of their way to welcome the new kid, no one is marveling at the ways in which she's different—instead they just don't seem all that interested in her. And we know this through their actions.

What other incidences of actions clueing us into character can you find? They're subtle, but they can add a whole lot of meaning to even the smallest moments.