How to Teach Character Analysis: 8 Strategies & 10 Short Stories
Harry Potter. Elizabeth Bennet. Janie Starks. Jay Gatsby. Scout Finch. Arnold Spirit, Jr.
It’s impossible to teach English without discussing characters. After all, we wouldn’t have stories without characters; if we did, the stories certainly wouldn’t be as memorable.
We took a peek at the Common Core standards to see how early the directive to teach character analysis appears, and it’s kindergarten. Even then, we’re willing to bet that few kindergartners show up for the first day of school unable to identify a beloved character.
Of course, the lessons, texts, and characters our students encounter become more complex over the years, but no matter what grade you teach, it’s essential that you teach character analysis.
For starters, you can’t have a story without someone doing something, so the opportunities to teach character analysis are endless. Not every story offers opportunities to analyze symbolism or irony, but a story without characters? We have yet to find one.
Character analysis is also something all our students can do, so it’s the perfect focus for close reading activities. When we teach character analysis, our students have an accessible skill they can apply to increasingly complex texts, growing in their ability to make claims and support them with evidence and commentary.
And finally, when we teach character analysis, we give our students tools for finding and discussing the theme of a text. Our goal, especially as high school teachers, is to help our students see how all the elements of storytelling come together to convey a coherent message. Examining characters, particularly how they do and do not change over the course of a text, is one of the most reliable tools our students can use to identify (and support) the theme of a piece of literature.
But just because something is important doesn’t mean it’s easy, so today we’re pulling together everything we’ve learned about how to teach character analysis, creating a go-to guide for English teachers.

Key Literary Terms to Cover to Teach Character
No matter what level you teach, these are the literary terms you’ll want to make sure students are familiar with:
protagonist85281_57d7d9-80> |
the main character of a story 85281_8d6d48-66> |
antagonist85281_ba8d02-8e> |
the person or force that opposes the protagonist in a story As your students become more advanced, it’s important to help them understand that “antagonist” isn’t a synonym for “bad guy” or “villain.” An antagonist can be inanimate, like weather or even an inner quality of the protagonist. The antagonist can even be a person or force we would consider “good”: if, for example, the protagonist of a story is an entirely unlikable serial killer, then the police would be considered the antagonist because they are the force that opposes the protagonist. 85281_b8ffdb-25> |
subordinate character85281_c6d07b-1f> |
a character whose role in a story, while important, is smaller than that of the protagonist or antagonist 85281_56d43b-59> |
direct characterization85281_590219-72> |
method of describing a character in which an author explicitly identifies a character’s traits instead of allowing the reader to infer from the character’s words or behavior For example, look at this passage from Pride and Prejudice: “Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and caprice, that the experience of three and twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character. Her mind was less difficult to develop. She was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented, she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news.” We don’t have to read between the lines or make any inferences about Mr. and Mrs. Bennet: he makes sarcastic jokes and acts on impulse. She is not particularly smart and prone to mood swings. 85281_7dbfa8-3b> |
indirect characterization85281_2d4071-6a> |
method of describing a character in which the author shows what a character is like by describing the character’s words or actions in such a way that readers can infer their traits This is crucial: when we’re teaching our students to make claims about a character’s traits, their evidence often comes from things a character says or does, not from direct exposition. Determining character traits when they aren’t directly presented is some of the most important critical thinking our students will do in our classrooms. 85281_367f7e-45> |
round character85281_811478-f2> |
a well-developed and complex character with many traits (possibly even contradictory traits) 85281_489ffe-64> |
flat character85281_786bd7-ff> |
a character who has not been fully developed, demonstrating only one or two character traits The more advanced our students get, the more important it is for them to understand that most characters will be flat characters. This doesn’t mean those characters are unimportant or that the author has “failed” in some way: it would be impossible for an author to develop every character fully without creating a tome stretching to thousands of pages. 85281_e7ea99-4d> |
dynamic character85281_829bc5-85> |
a character who undergoes a significant change in personality, character, or outlook (not circumstances, mood, or appearance) over the course of a story Another essential term: when a character, particularly a protagonist, changes in a significant way over the course of the story, it’s like a flashing neon arrow pointing us toward the story’s theme. Pro Tip: In 14 years teaching AP Literature, “round character” and “dynamic character” (and “flat character” and “static character”) were the literary terms our students most frequently confused. We’ve also seen resources that say these terms are synonymous or that all main characters are dynamic. The difference between the two terms is important, and it’s essential that students know not all characters change. In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo’s refusal to change is his downfall and significant in pointing us toward the novel’s theme. 85281_0ed670-d1> |
static character85281_102f71-e5> |
a character who does not undergo any significant change in personality or character over the course of a story 85281_3a6c60-09> |
stock character85281_dcc6f4-99> |
a character who fits a common “type” and is easily recognizable These characters don’t need to be fully developed because we know everything we need to know about them at a glance: the eccentric detective, the nosy mother, the “mean girl” cheerleader. 85281_b6c535-75> |
foil character85281_19eb18-e8> |
a character with opposite traits to another character, often a main character, in a text; the contrast between the two characters allows us to better understand them Pride and Prejudice is full of these: the differences between Mr. Darcy and the other men and between Elizabeth and the other women are key to Austen’s purpose. 85281_e073d2-04> |
epiphany85281_31bd54-71> |
a moment of sudden understanding or insight; may lead a character to undergo significant change in personality, character, or outlook This one pairs nicely with “dynamic character” since it’s often (but certainly not always) an epiphany that leads to a character’s change. 85281_9d8f49-45> |
Need a go-to list of literary terms? Our list makes a great resource for your LMS or for students to keep in their binders. In addition to the definitions of the key literary terms we’ve found most essential, we’ve included student-friendly examples and access to review Kahoots.
Free LITERARY TERMS LIST!
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8 Key Strategies to Teach Character Analysis
Knowing what you need to teach is one thing, but how to teach it effectively is another matter. We went through our files and rounded up every strategy we’ve used to teach character analysis. We’re confident you’ll find something here that will work for you and your students!
Character Sort
We created manipulatives featuring a wide variety of well-known characters from children’s cartoons/stories (Spongebob, Batman, Elsa, Harry Potter) and an episode of Modern Family we had shown in class as part of our plot unit. We also created headings with the above literary terms on them, and then we had students sort the manipulatives into the right categories. It was a fun and engaging way to practice applying the terms with characters they already knew well.
Stickman or Body Biography
One strategy that was all the rage in our district when we first started teaching was a “stickman” graphic organizer that students used to identify a character’s ideas (near the head), visions and hopes (near the eye), feelings (near the heart), strengths and weaknesses (near the arms), personality traits (near one foot), and actions (near the other foot).
We used this graphic organizer many times: students created stickmen for themselves, for characters from Shel Silverstein poems, for characters from summer reading novels, for characters in the texts we read in class.
More recently, we’ve seen teachers using Danielle Knight’s Body Biography assignment, a leveled-up version that allows for both creativity and rich character analysis.
Practice Applying Literary Devices
While not, perhaps, the most fun or creative way to practice, we created plenty of worksheets over the years where students identified examples of the literary terms above for whatever text we were focusing on. It’s simple, but it gives students much needed practice applying these key terms.
Direct and Indirect Characterization Chart
We used our Modern Family episode (Episode 1.9, “Fizbo”) for this, but it would work with any text. We created a side-by-side chart with direct characterization on one side and indirect characterization on the other. We alternated which side we filled in for students, and then they had to fill in the opposite side.
For example, we wrote, “When they realize they have forgotten about Luke’s birthday, Phil and Claire improvise a birthday cake out of stuffing at Thanksgiving” on the indirect characterization side and then asked students to fill in the direct characterization side by completing a sentence starter that said, “Phil and Claire are . . .” Later in the chart, we wrote, “Bianca has good handwriting” on the direct characterization side, and students had to fill in the indirect characterization side with a piece of evidence from the episode that shows (rather than tells) Bianca has good handwriting.
Close Reading Practice
One of the best strategies to use (and one that can be scaffolded for a variety of levels) is close reading practice.
Early in the year, we gave our sophomores a brief quotation from a text. They had to decide if it was an example of direct or indirect characterization and then identify a character trait based on the passage.
We might then have followed that with a similar activity where students identify a character trait from a quotation (or passage) and then underline or highlight details that support their selection.
In AP Literature, we had students complete a graphic organizer for one of the three proposal scenes (Mr. Collins proposing to Elizabeth, Mr. Darcy disastrously proposing to Elizabeth, Mr. Darcy successfully proposing to Elizabeth) in Pride and Prejudice. Students created a graphic organizer with the following characteristics:
- A visual representation of the character in the middle
- A “thesis statement” in response to the question, “How does Austen characterize [insert character name here] in the selected proposal scene?”
- What the character says: Three quotes with analysis describing the character based on his/her words
- What the character does or how he/she appears (body language, facial expressions, actions, etc.): Three quotes with analysis describing the character based on his/her actions and appearance
- What the character thinks (this must be inferred—but based on textual evidence—for Mr. Collins or Mr. Darcy): Three quotes with analysis describing the character based on his/her thoughts
- What other characters say about the character (in this case, how Elizabeth reacts to him, or, if you choose Elizabeth, how he reacts to her): Three quotes with analysis describing the character based on other characters’ words
All of these activities work on their own, but they also all work well as prewriting for a paragraph (we recommend a 5C paragraph, of course) in which students make a claim about a character trait, provide an integrated piece of concrete evidence, and then connect the quotation to their claim with context, commentary, and a connection sentence. (Need a ready-made lesson? We’ve got you covered.)
Graphic Organizers
One year, our district was big on Thinking Maps, and we were encouraged to regularly look for ways to integrate these into our curriculum. We used Double Bubble Maps (similar to a Venn Diagram) for students to compare and contrast two characters in a text; we also used the Flow Map for students to map out character motivations.
There are a wide variety of similar graphic organizers that allow students to practice flexing their character analysis skills.
Essay (or Mini-Essay) about a Dynamic Character
We loved to assign our students, especially our sophomores, writing assignments in which they described a dynamic character’s change and how it supported a theme statement.
This was an accessible way for our students, many of whom were performing below grade level, to write a solid literary analysis essay (and it’s an organizational strategy that works well for AP students, too).
We began our school year by asking students to do this for The LEGO Batman Movie: our goal was to teach them how to write the 5C paragraph we’d use throughout the school year, and all students were easily able to describe how Batman changes over the course of the movie and connect that change to a theme statement.
Later in the semester, when we read Elie Wiesel’s Night, we had students write a full five-paragraph essay in which they described how Wiesel changes over the course of the memoir. Students did well, particularly because they’d already gone through a similar process on a shorter, more accessible assignment.
End-of-Novel (or Story) Flip Book Activity
Our go-to end-of-novel flip book activity (which works for novels, plays, and short stories) includes a page in which students select three characters from the novel, label each character with one of the literary terms above, and provide an explanation that includes two integrated quotations highlighting important aspects of the character’s personality.
We modified this activity for our standard-level students: they still selected three characters and a character type, but instead of writing a full explanation with integrated quotations, they wrote a one-sentence explanation and provided one supporting quotation (that didn’t have to be integrated).
In both cases, students provided an illustration of the character, giving them a chance to flex their creative muscles, and we were impressed by some of the text-based illustrations we got over the years (like Marie in her red-and-white striped dress from The Stranger).
5 Short Stories to Teach Character Analysis in AP Literature (+3 Bonus Recommendations)
While we highlighted a couple of our favorites in an earlier round-up of short stories for teaching characterization, we’ve got a selection of stories that work well to teach character analysis in your AP Literature class. What all of these have in common is richly detailed characters and a representation of most of the character types mentioned above.
“Araby” by James Joyce
While Steph liked this one more than Kate did, Joyce’s loss-of-innocence story is a great choice when you teach character analysis. The narrator, a young boy, is in love with his friend’s older sister and decides to go to a local bazaar to buy her gift. But when he sees two teenagers flirting out of boredom amidst a closing-down market that is far from his romantic fantasies, the reality of “love” leaves him heartbroken.
Other key literary terms: setting and allusion
“How Far She Went” by Mary Hood
Hood’s short story introduces us to a teenage girl resentful of being sent to live with a grandmother (who has her own painful history). When the girl finds herself in a dangerous situation, however, we see that the grandmother will do anything it takes to save her granddaughter, a significant turning point in their relationship. We love that the story requires students to zoom in on small details.
Other key literary terms: plot structure and foreshadowing
“How I Met My Husband” by Alice Munro
Definitely one of our favorite texts to teach in AP Literature, Munro’s short story is narrated by Edie, an older woman telling us the story of how she met her husband. The twist at the end of the story provides ample opportunities for discussion about the fairness of the ending and about what real love looks like. It’s fun to read with high schoolers who are so judgmental of the protagonist, largely because they haven’t learned their own hard lessons about love yet. The “Edie-from-the-future” perspective also provides us with interesting opportunities for discussion, as her attitude toward the other characters, even herself, guides our interpretation.
Other key literary terms: plot, point of view, symbolism
“Hunters in the Snow” by Tobias Wolff

Another of our favorites, Wolff’s short story introduces us to three men—Tub, Frank, and Kenny—who are supposedly friends but whose behavior towards one another is far from friendly. The three men go hunting one day, and their foolish behavior leads to a hunting accident made worse by the selfish actions that follow.
What makes this story so perfect for a unit on characterization is that not only are the three characters richly described, but truly understanding the dynamics between them requires close reading. At first read, one character seems far more sympathetic; by the end, we see that the initially least likable character may, in fact, be the most sympathetic one. The cruelty and selfishness the men exhibit towards one another is only discernible through close reading, and we had many rich discussions with our students as they worked that out. There’s also a lot of value in presenting students with a story with three entirely unlikable (and decidedly not dynamic) characters: it’s a reminder that literary fiction doesn’t always make us feel good about the world.
Other key literary terms: setting
“Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri
Lahiri tells us the story of Mr. Kapasi, a middle-aged man working as a tour guide in India and not entirely satisfied with the way his life has turned out. One day, his customers are the Das family, and he’s drawn to the wife until she shares a shocking confession. The conflict between cultures (the Das family is Indian but lives in America, Mr. Kapasi lives in India) adds another layer to the story.
Other key literary terms: point of view, symbolism
Stories we didn’t teach ourselves but have discovered more recently that would work well for teaching characterization include Kazuo Ishiguro’s “A Family Supper,” Ken Liu’s “The Paper Menagerie,” and Toni Morrison’s “Sweetness.”
5 Short Stories to Teach Character Analysis to Struggling Readers
Most years, we used these stories as part of a combined unit on plot structure, character, and point of view. Our main criteria here was young protagonists and a relatively engaging story; these stories all fit the bill, but the top two were our most successful.
“The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant” by W.D. Wetherell
The 14-year-old narrator loves nothing more than fishing . . . until he sees Sheila Mant. When he finally gets up the nerve to ask her on a date, he’s thrilled until he has to choose between his greatest loves. While our Southern California students needed context on fishing and East Coast crew teams, the story of first crushes was relatable.
“Catch the Moon” by Judith Ortiz Cofer
Our most successful short story selection, “Catch the Moon” introduces us to Luis Cintron, whose rebellious streak after his mother’s death has gotten him into trouble with the law (and his father). When he meets Naomi, however, his life begins to change.
“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
The narrator is a mother of two—Maggie, who lives at home, ashamed of the burn scars that cover her body, and Dee, the older sister who has “made it.” As she and Maggie welcome Dee home for a visit, their mother is forced to recognize which daughter truly values their family roots.
“The Storyteller” by Saki
A bachelor, irritated by a woman’s ineffective efforts to keep her niece and nephew quiet on a train ride, tells them a story. It starts out like many they’ve heard before, but it soon takes a sharp turn.
“Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy?” by Tim O’Brien
This excerpt from Going After Cacciato tells us about Paul Berlin’s march to the sea with his fellow soldiers after his first day in combat in Vietnam, where he watched Billy Boy die. As they march, Paul must fight his fear, telling himself he will be safe once they reach the sea.
No matter how you teach character analysis, it’s likely to be a significant part of your ELA curriculum. Thankfully, it’s one of the most accessible skills we get to teach, and it’s one we can teach with virtually any text.
Save yourself prep time with our ready-made character analysis activities: we have an introduction to the 5C paragraph in which students identify a character trait for a character from any text, and we have our full mini-unit on The LEGO Batman Movie, complete with viewing guides, structured writing activities, a rubric, and even a quiz. These activities come with everything you’ll need to implement them immediately, and we’ve found them to be engaging ways to help students of many levels write successfully about characters.