Tuesday, May 30, 2017
In:
Literature
Character and Characterization of Anna and The French Kiss novel by Stephanie Perkins
I was analyzing Anna and the French Kiss novel by Stephanie Perkins as my thesis in bachelor degree. so, here I want to share some part of my analysis. they are character in the novel and the characterization of the main character. if you have been read this novel too, such a kind if you want to add any advice or comments. Thank you
This
novel consists of several main characters and several minor characters. They
are explained as follows:
1.
Characters
a) Major Character
The major character can
be analyzed in three groups: a) the protagonist, b) the antagonist, c) the
companion. The protagonist is usually the heroine that plays an important role
in the story. The protagonist in this novel is the main character. The name is
Anna Olliphant. She is the most discussed in the story, and appears many times
from beginning of the story until the end.
The
antagonist in a novel usually refers to the enemy or the challenger or the
protagonist. In the novel Anna and the
French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, the antagonist is Amanda. She is Anna’s
Schoolmate who crushed on St. Clair but one side love. Although she is Anna’s
classmate but sometimes she will be challenger for Anna.
The
companion or partner is someone who is usually helped by close friend or by a
reputable person. In this novel the companion is Anna’s lover, his named St.
Clair. He always appears when Anna needs his help.
b)
Minor Characters
The minor characters in this novel
are friends and family of Anna. Several characters and characterizations of the
minor characters as follows:
1) James
Ashley/Anna’s Father
James
Ashley is Anna’s father pen name. Anna’s
father sent her to the boarding School (SOAP) in Paris. He is novelist.
The quotation :
“My
dad is a novelist.” I blurt this without thinking and immediately regret it.
“Really?
Who?”
“James
Ashley.” That’s his pen name. I guess Oliphant wasn’t romantic enough.
“Who?”
The humiliation factor multiplies.
“The Decision? The Entrance? They were made into movies. Forget it, they all
have vague names like that-“
She
leans forward, exited. “No, my mom loves The
Entrance!”
I
wrinkle my nose.
“They
aren’t that bad. I watched The Entrance with her once and totally
cried when that girl died of leukemia”. (Perkins,2013:34)
2) Anna’s
Mother
Anna’s mother is the one of Anna’s power to keep
struggle. She is so caring and love her daughter so much. The following
quotation shows Anna’s mother as follows:
My mother lingers behind. “You’ll have a
wonderful year here,” she says. “I just know it.” I bite my lip to keep it from
quivering, and she sweeps me into her arms. I try to breathe. Inhale. Count to
three. Exhale. Her skin smells like grapefruit body lotion. “I’ll call you the
oment I get home,” she says.
Home. Atlanta isn’t
my home anymore
“I love you,
Anna.”
I’mcrying now. “ I love you, too. Take
care of Seany for me.”
“Of course.”(Perkins,2013:7)
3) Seany
Sean is Anna’s brother. He is seven
years old. The following quotation shows that Sean is Anna’s brother as
follows:
And
I still can’t believe she’s separating me from my brother, Sean, who is only
seven and way too young to be left home alone after school. (Perkins,2013 :6)
“Bridge
is a ROCK STAR,” Seany says from the backseat. His voice is filled with
adoration.
Uh-oh.
Someone has a crush. “Oh, yeah?”
“She
says her band is gonna be on MTV someday, but not the lame one, one of the cool
ones you can only get with a special cable package.”
I
turn around. My brother look strangely smug. “And how do you know about special
cable packages?” (Perkins,2013:215)
4) Bridgete
Bridgette is Anna’s best friend in Atlanta. She is
drummer for Toph’s band. The following quotation shows that Bridgete is Anna’s best friend as follows:
Mom says I need to lose the bitter
factor, pronto, but she’s not the one leaving behind her fabulous best friend,
Bridgette. (Perkins, 2013:6)
5) Crishtopeher
Christopher has a nickname as Toph.
He is Anna’s crush before she leaves for SOAP. He begins dating Bridgette when
Anna in SOAP and it angering Anna. The following quotation shows that Anna
crush on Toph as follows:
“His real name is Christopher, but he
hates being called Chris, so he goes by Toph instead. He has shocking green
eyes and wicked sideburns. We’re both left-handed, we both love the fake nacho
cheese at the concession stand, and we both hate Cuba Gooding Jr. I’ve crushed
on Toph since my first day on the job, when he stuck his head under the ICEE
machine and guzzled it straight from the tap to make me laugh. He had Blue
Raspberry Mouth for the rest of this shift. (Perkins,2013:45)
6) Meredith
Meredith is Anna’s friend in Paris.
She loves soccer and has a crush on St. Clair. Anna know how Meredith feels, so
she keeps her crush on him a secret. The following quotation shows that
Meredith is Anna’s friend in Paris as follows:
“Hello?” a girl calls from the hallway.
“Hello? Are you okay?”
No, I ‘m not okay. GO AWAY. But she
calls again, and I’m obligated to crawl off my bed and answer the door. A
blonde with long, tight curls waits on the other side. She’s tall and big, but
not overweight-big. Volleyball player big. A diamond like nose ring sparkles in
the hall light. “Are you all right?” Her voice is gentle. “I’m Meredith; I live
next door. Were those your parents who just left?” (Perkins:2013:10)
7) Josh
Josh is Anna’s friend at SOAP and
St. Clair’s best friend. His girlfriend is Rashmi. He is an artist. The
following quotation shows that Josh is Anna’s friend as follows:
Josh
is quite and reserved in class, but outside of it, his sense of humor is
similar to St. Clair’s. its easy to understand why they’re such good friends.
Meredith say they idolize each other, Josh because of St. Clair’s innate
charisma, and St.Clair because Josh is an astounding artist. I rarely see Josh
without his brush and pen or sketchbook. His work is incredible-thick bold
strokes and teeny exquisite details-and his fingers are always stained with
ink. (Perkins, 2013 : 52)
8) Rashmi
Rashmi is another Anna’s friend at
the SOAP. She is Josh girlfriend. The following quotation shows that Rashmi is
Anna’s friend as follows:
A lucky guy with short hair and a long
nose salutes me with his coffee cup. “Josh,” he says. “And Rashmi.” He nods to
the girl next to him, who holds his other hand inside the front pocket of his
hoodie. Rashmi has blue-framed glasses and thick black hair that hangs all the
way down her back. She gives me only the barest of acknowledgments. (Perkins,2013:22)
9) Ellie
Ellie is Etienne St. Clair steady girlfriend. She is
a year older than Anna. The following quotation shows that Ellie is St. Clair’s
girlfriend as follows:
They
break apart, and she starts talking. Her voice is surprisingly low-sultry-but she speaks rapidly. “I know
we weren’t gonna see each other tonight, but I was in the neighborhood and
thought you might want to go to that club I was telling you about. You know,
the one Matthieu recommended? But you weren’t there, so I found Mer and I’ve
been talking to her for the last hour, and where were you? I called your cell
three times but it went straight to voice mail.”
St.
Clair looks disoriented. “er. Ellie, this is Anna. She hadn’t left the dorm all
week, so I thought I’d show her –“
To
my amazement Ellie breaks into an ear-to-ear smile. Oddly enough, it’s this
moment I realize that despite her husky voice and Parisian attire, she’s sort
of… plain. But friendly-looking. (Perkins,2013 : 91)
2. Characterization of the main character
a. The
Protagonist
The
protagonist in the novel Anna and the
French Kiss is Anna Oliphant. The characterization of Anna Oliphant as
follows:
1)
Caring
Anna is a caring person. She cares about
her friend’s problem, about St. Clair mom disease, and her family. The
following quotation shows that Anna is a independently person as follows:
“ So, um. You don’t have to talk about it if
you don’t want to, but how’s she doing?” The words spill from my mouth before I
can stop them. “Is the radiation therapy making her tired? Is she eating
enough? I read that if you don’t put on lotion every night, you can get burns,
and I was just wondering. . .”I trail off, seeing his expression. It’s as if I’ve
sprouted tusks. “I’m sorry. I’m being noisy, I’ll shut-“
“No,”
he interrupts. “it ‘s not that. It’s just . . . you’re the first person who ‘s
known any of that. How . . . how did..
.?”
“Oh, um. I was worried, so I did some
research. You know, so I’d . . . .know,” I finish lamely.
He’s quite
for a moment. “ Thank you.” (Perkins,2013:173)
And I
still can’t believe she’s separating me from my brother, Sean, who is only
seven and way too young to be left home alone after school. Without me, he’ll
probably be kidnapped by that creepy guy down the road who has dirty Coca-Cola
towels hanging in his windows. Or Seany will accidentally eat something
containing Red Dye #40 and his throat will swell up and no one will be there to
drive him to the hospital. He might even die. And I bet they wouldn’t let me
fly home for this funeral and I’d have to visit the cemetery alone next year
and Dad will have picked out some god-awful granite cherub to go over his
grave. (Perkins, 2013:6)
2)
Smart
Anna is a smart girl. Being a new American
student in Paris is not easy as usual student. She needs more effort to save
her academic. This characterization of Anna shows when she was accepted into
all of the schools she applied. The following quotation shows that Anna is a
smart person as follows.
For the first time, it strikes me how
competitive this school is. Students here take studying seriously, and the
dormitory is almost as quite as it was when they were gone for Thanksgiving.
Letters
arrive from universities. I’ve been accepted into all of the schools I applied
to, but there’s hardly time to celebrate.(Perkins,2013:195)
3)
Independently
Anna
is independently person especially when she arrived in Paris and has to do
anything by herself. She always try to speak in Parisian and do some
transaction by herself in Friday night. The day when all students have a free
day from the boarding school to go out. The following quotation shows that Anna
is a independently person as follows.
4)
Anxious
Anna
felt so panics when she arrived in Paris. She has a big worried if she can’t survive
in her new life because of her France language ability.
I feel it coming, but I can’t stop it.
PANIC
They left me. My parents actually left
me! IN FRANCE1
Meanwhile, Paris
is oddly silent. Even the opera singer has packed it in for the night. I cannot lose it. The walls here are
thinner than Band-Aids, so if I break down, my neighbors-my new classmates-
will hear everything. I’m going to be sick. I’m going to vomit that weird
eggplant tapenade. I had for dinner, and everyone will hear, and no one will
invite me to watch the mimes escape from their invisible boxes, or whatever it
is people do here in their spare time. (Perkins, 2013: 9)
In other situation, she slept before she
has to go Atlanta. Fortunately, she has the same ticket flight with St. Clair
so, he help Anna to packing and prepare to run the time. The following
quotation shows that Anna is a anxious person as follows.
We’re going to miss our flight.
We’re going to miss it, and it’s my fault. And who knows when the next plane
will leave, and we’ll be stuck here all day, and I’ll never make it in time for
Bridge and Toph’s show. And St. Clair mom will cry when she has to go to the
hospital without him for her first round of internal radiation, because he’ll
be stuck in an airport on the other side of the world, and it’s
ALL.MY.FAULT.(Perkins, 2013 : 204)
5)
Friendly
Anna
is a friendly person. The following quotation shows that Anna is a friendly
person as follows.
I step forward
and say my name as kindly as possible, to make up for the jerk who just left.
She gives a dimpled smile back. “I remember you, sweetie. Have a nice first
day.” And she hands me a half sheet of yellow paper. (Perkins, 2013: 31)
6)
Talkative
Anna is talkative
person because she can’t let the situation quite and an awkward moment. The
following quotation shows that Anna is a talkative person as follows.
I give him a
funny look and return to Mer. She’s upset, too, and I’m afraid I’ve missed
something. No, I know I’ve missed something. I babble to cover the peculiar
silence. “I’m so happy to be going home. My flight leaves at, like, six in the
morning this Saturday, so I have to get up insanely early, but it’s worth it. I
should make it in plenty of time to see the Penny Dreadfuls. (Perkins, 2013:
200)
7)
Clean
Anna loves rules, tidy
and being clean. The following quotation shows that Anna is a clean person as
follows.
“I wish I could
have a room like this.” I love it, but I’m too much of a neat freak to have a
room something like it for myself. I need clean walls and a clean desktop and
everything put away in its right place all times. (Perkins,2013 :13)
8)
Jealous
But then, just as I feel those
twinges again, he disappears. I’ll be staring out my window after dinner,
watching the sanitations workers tidy the street in their bright green
uniforms, when he’ll emerge from our dorm and vanish toward the metro.
Toward Ellie.
(Perkins, 2013:94)
9)
Coward
Anna too coward to
stopping Meredith as her new friend go to School. The following quotation shows
that Anna is a Coward person as follows:
“ The next morning, I consider stopping by Meredith’s,
but I chicken out and walk to breakfast by myself. At least I know where the
cafeteria is (Day Two: Life Skills Seminars). (Perkins,2013:18)
10) Curious
He nods toward Rashmi and Mer. “They
don’t. but St.Clair dad is piece of work.”
“ So, I hear.” Curiosity gets the
best of me, and I lower my voice. “What’s his deal?”
Josh shrugs. “He’s just a jerk. He
keeps a tight leash on St.Clair and his mom, but he’s really friendly to
everyone else. Somehow that makes it worse.”
11) Brave
One place, please. I
double-checked my pronunciation before stepping up to the box office and
sliding over my euros. The woman selling tickets doesn’t blink, just rips my
ticket in half and hands me the stub. I accept it graciously and stammer my
thanks. Inside the theater, an usher examines my stub. She tears it slightly,
and I know from watching my friends that I’m supposed to give her a small tip
for this useless tradition. I touch the Canadian patch for luck, but I don’t
need it. The handoff is easy.
I did it. I did it!
My relief is so profound that I hardly
notice my feet carve their way into my favorite row. The theater is almost
empty. Three girls around my age are in the back, and an elderly couple sits in
front of me, sharing a box of candy. Some people finicky about going to the
theater alone, but I’m not. Because when the lights go down, the only
relationship left in the room is the one between the movie and me.
(Perkins,2013: 118)
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