Name:
Indirect Characterization Paragraph Organization Worksheet
Below you will find an example to mirror and workspace to write a paragraph that
explores and explains a quality that you inferred a character within a story possesses.
Remember, the objective of this assignment is for you to come to your own
conclusion about a character’s personality and support that conclusion with specific
evidence from the text.
Example Paragraph
In the story “Lather and Nothing Else,” written by Hernando Tellez, the barber
displays a great deal of indecisiveness. The reader is exposed to the barber’s inability to
decide whether or not to kill Captain Torres until the end of the story. Indeed, the entire
story’s plot is centered on which way the barber will make up his mind. Throughout the
action of the plot, which is basically just a scene depicting a man being shaved and
having a short conversation with his barber, the reader must follow the barber’s thoughts
as he attempts to answer one question: should he kill Torres? The barber clearly
demonstrates his inability to decide whether or not to kill Torres when he thinks,
“Confound the hour he [Torres] entered my shop. I am a revolutionary but not a
murderer. And it would be so easy to kill him. He deserves it. Or does he?” (7). This
question rages inside the barber’s mind throughout the entire process of him shaving
Torres’s face and throat, adding to the excitement of the plot and the thrill of the climax
when the barber finally makes his decision. However, even up to the very last moments
that Torres is vulnerably seated in his chair, just before the barber would lose his chance
to prove himself both hero to the revolution and murderer in the eyes of the government,
the barber is still silently debating with himself. “And so, which will it be? Murderer or
hero? My fate hangs on the edge of this razor blade,” he ponders (9). This debate
continues until, in the end, after a lengthy back-and-forth internal struggle over whether
or not to kill Torres, the barber overcomes his own indecisiveness and decides against
taking matters into his own hands. He decides not to “stain [his] hands with blood. Just
with lather, and nothing else” (9).
Write a topic sentence mentioning the author, story, character, and character trait that you
are going to attempt to prove with textual evidence.
Briefly, in general, explain how the character trait is shown to be possessed by the
character throughout the text. Do not put specific evidence from the text here. Just
generalize.
Introduce first piece of evidence that proves the characteristic.
Provide evidence of the character trait through the character’s actions, words, thoughts, or
what another character(s) says or thinks about the character
Explain how the evidence relates to the character trait mentioned in the topic sentence
Introduce second piece of evidence to prove the characteristic.
Provide evidence of the character trait through the character’s actions, words, thoughts, or
what another character(s) says or thinks about the character
If explanation is necessary, then explain how the evidence relates to the character trait
mentioned in the topic sentence
Write a concluding statement(s) to the paragraph that both restates the character trait that
was mentioned in the topic sentence and somehow “wraps up” the evidence given (now as
a proven point)