Final answer:
Direct characterization is when an author explicitly states a character's traits in the text, providing clear information about personality, background, or appearance.
Step-by-step explanation:
What is Direct Characterization?
Direct characterization is a literary technique that involves the author directly stating a character's traits. This method provides straightforward facts about the character, such as their personality, background, motivations, or appearance. Unlike indirect characterization, which shows us a character's nature through their actions, speech, or thoughts, direct characterization tells us explicitly what we need to know about a character.
Examples of Direct Characterization-
In literature, you might encounter a sentence like 'She was a kind woman, who always had a smile on her face and a kind word for everyone.' This is an example of direct characterization, as the author is directly informing the reader about the character's benevolent nature.
Direct characterization helps readers quickly understand who a character is and what makes them tick. This technique is especially useful in short stories, where there is limited space to develop characters, or when an author wants to establish a character's attributes unambiguously.