So, let’s talk about CHARACTER and how a writer shows it!
I’ll start with a quote:
When I tell gringos that my Mexican grandfather worked as a publicist, the news silences them.
Shocked facial expressions follow suit.
Their heads look ready to explode and I can tell they’re thinking, “In Mexico, there are PUBLICISTS?!”
I wryly grin at these fulanos and let my smile speak on my behalf. It answers, “Yes, bitch, in México, there are things to publicize such as our own fucking opinions about YOU.”
Myriam gurba
ASSIGNMENT (due TUESDAY by 11:59 PM):
Think about this question and answer it in the “reply” section of this post: How does Gurba show her character (also known as personality) through this passage?
Authors of all genres strive to share the characters of the people in their stories. A good way to share a person’s personality is by showing their actions, the way they talk, how they appear, and their thoughts.
This week we’re going to start talking about characterization in memoir and other genres and do a really fun activity on Thursday!
Okay, so here’s Week 5’s Assignments. If you have questions, come to an Office Hour!
Gurba simply shows her character through her tone of voice in her sentence, and from my perspective, you can clearly tell that she is a straight-up person who’s not afraid to speak her mind.
Gurba shows her characterization by disgust towards the ignorance that some people show towards she mentioning that her father had a career as a publicist in Mexico. As she states, they were astonished with the news like publicists or any other developed related career cannot exist in Mexico. She shows her personality by using Spanglish to show her rage towards the reaction of the Americans. She is fearless when speaking about her community and defending it.
Gurba shows her personality through her smug grin and the bold meaning behind it. She knows that people look down on Mexico, considering it to have only small or non-important jobs. She shows her personality by not only proving them wrong but also holding her head high while doing so.
Gruba shows her character by her use of word choice and tone. She seems like a honest, blunt, and straight forward person. She will tell you how it is, based on her use of word choice and tone.
Gurba shows her blunt character by using expletives, you can also tell that she is very proud of her Mexican heritage. She expressed her feelings towards people that have no clue about a different culture but likes to judge a community based on racist opinions by firing back without any hesitation. She also described her facial expression in her words to show that she was mad, and she was not afraid about people might think that she is a little radical concerning her character.
Gurba shows her character as being sarcastic and straight-up. She hates that people think down on Mexicans as working in lower-class jobs so she uses sarcasm to have a straight-up snappy comeback to their ignorance.
Gurba sounds like a woman who does NOT play at all. She shows her personality as a confident straight up woman who will tell you what’s up right on the spot! She has a hint of sarcasm too. For instance, it started with her showing smug when she was telling the “gringos” that indeed there are publicists in Mexico.
Gurba shows her character primarily through her voice, especially her word choice, but also through her personal anecdotes. Her anecdotes act as a means of “connect the dots” for her thought process concerning the greater picture she’s trying to paint and also give insight into how she feels about the situation she’s describing, but also the bigger issue she’s integrating it into. Her word choice and phrasing is a strong vehicle for her attitude that comes across as so personal, it seems to be “3D”. Rather than reading something she has written, you’re reading a transcript of something you watched her say in person.
Gruba shows her character mainly through her analyzation of “Dirt” by Jeanine Cummings . It is blatantly obvious that Gruba is not a fan of people who try to be something they are not or try to speak on something they don’t truly understand. They way Gruba rips apart Cummins work shows who she is someone who believes in fair representation. The way she attacks the piece shows she’s not afraid of voicing her opinions and is unapologetic about doing so. Everything from her tone of voice to the raw language she chooses to use portrays that she not shy of calling out any form of incorrect representation.
In my opinion Gurba seems like a “straight-up” blunt personality. It can be seen from how she writes, especially in the first paragraph. She writes that she follows ” in the cocky footsteps of my grandfather, Ricardo Serrano RĂos”. If he was cocky then she probably is if she follows in his footsteps.
She shows that she is very fed up and angry with how the Americans see her country. They only think of the stereotypes they see in the media. The closed mindedness and ignorance that people show her when she tells them about her country bothers her. This is because it doesn’t seem like the first time this has happened to her.
Gurba’s personality and character resemble that of the cocky and blunt person in TV shows that mess with the other character ( which is often my favorite character). This quote shows that Gurba is a character with a lot of knowledge from both American and Mexican culture, which gives her leverage over people who have a one-sided mindset of Mexico. She knows this and uses it to blow people’s minds and in her bluntness, she delivers brutal honesty on information that should be obvious but is ignored thanks to the blindness that is given through how Mexico is portrayed through the media.