Characterization

I en god analyse er det vigtigt, at der indgår personkarakteristikker. Her får du overblikket over de væsentligste personer i novellen Jesse af Joy Boothe, som du kan bruge som inspiration til din egen opgave.

Personerne, der gennemgås er:

Protagonist/narrator
Daddy
Granny
Jesse

Det følgende er et uddrag af hver personkarakteristik.

The protagonist/narrator

The main character in the short story is the narrator. The story is told from her point of view from age 5 to age 27. Throughout the story we are told how she feels and thinks about the people, the setting and the events that occur:

“I am five years old and I hate the name ...

Daddy

The father plays an important, yet paradoxical role in the story. He embodies both tolerance and openness, even though he is the one who ends up killing the mother and himself in front of his young daughter.
It is clear that Daddy likes Jesse and enjoys working with him:

“I like it when Daddy starts talking about a man named Jesse ...

Granny

In contrast to the narrator and Daddy, Granny is hostile towards Jesse and black people. She is the one who told the narrator about a black man raping a young girl (ll. 71-74), and it is clear that the narrator knows how Granny feels about Jesse and black people:

“Boy was Granny wrong ...

Jesse

Jesse, both the name and the character, is a central point throughout the story, and a few points should be highlighted here. Jesse is both described as a hard worker, he makes the narrator laugh with his stories and his singing and overall he seems funny and gentle:

“Daddy says Jesse knows ...