Dreams With Sharp Teeth

Week of 2/13
**Are the characters realistic (do they seem like they could be real people)? Why or why not?
Pages Read: 878-908    (Short Stories: : "In The Fourth Year Of The War" and "Alive And Well And On A Friendless Voyage")

Sometimes when I read a book, I find myself thinking, "No one could be that conceited." or "No one can be that annoying." And I think these thoughts often come with good reason. In books, sometimes the characters may seem unrealistic for whatever reason-- or reasons. Some of these characters are way too optimistic, way too pessimistic, too annoying or too strict. A lot of the things that make the characters seem unrealistic are when the author takes one emotion or aspect of a person and they make that emotion/aspect too bold or they make it disappear completely. If an author makes a character seem too perfect, to me, the character seems more forced and artificial, in a way. In Ellison's book, the characters pretty much always seem realistic. Even when the characters are fantasy based, like sorcerers, goblins, or other beasts, they always have personalities that are believable

"In The Fourth Year Of The War" is about a guy (who is never named) who is having a battle (or war) with a voice in his head. Jerry Olander was the name of the voice inside the guy's head, but Jerry was more like a person than a voice. He could control the guy's movements a bit and he would have conversations with the guy, such as conversations telling the guy to kill certain people. What made the guy in this story realistic was the fact that he had his problems, but he didn't dwell on them. Most people will have a problem and try to forget about it, and that's what the guy did. The story was written in his perspective, so his thoughts and reasoning are another thing that made him seem realistic. When Jerry Olander ordered the guy to kill for the first time in the four years Jerry had been in this guy's head, a lot of the guy's reasoning on why he shouldn't kill the man was based on the fact that the man he was ordered to kill was his own uncle. Ellison made part of the guy's back story and this back story also made the guy seem like a believable person. His back sotry was filled with problems, as it was also filled with joy, much like a real person.

In "Alive And Well And On A Friendless Voyage", the reader meets another character that is realistic. His name is Moth, and he really seems like a real person. The whole story is Moth walking through the lounge of a ship and talking to people about the bad things he has done and the problems he has faced. Moth was realistic because he had these problems and terrible things he had done, but he wasn't able to get over them. In "In The Fourth Year Of The War", the main character was a guy what was able to get over his problems. In "Alive And Well And On A Friendless Voyage", the main character was a man that was not able to get over his problems. Really, both of these aspects of people are common, I guess you could say. You may meet people that cannot get over their problems. You may find people that can get over their problems, so Moth became a realistic character because he had a real human aspect to him: he wasn't able to get over his problems. There were also other characters in this story that were realistic, the people that Moth was speaking to on the ship. He would walk through the ship's lounge and stop at almost every table in the lounge and talk to the person/people sitting there. These characters were different, some were supportive of Moth, some were angry at him, and some were silent. They reminded me of different types of people a person can meet throughout their life, as all the people Moth were talking to had different personalities and opinions on how Moth had lived his life. This story in particular seemed to be full of realistic characters, and it really made the story more interesting. If the characters had been rather unrealistic, I don't think the story would have been very interesting, and maybe that goes for most other stories, too.