Question

Read the excerpt below:

“It’s all right, dog,” Brock said soothingly. “I won’t hurt you.”
He stayed still. He didn’t want to frighten the little beast. If it ran,
he wasn’t sure he’d be able to catch it in his clumsy dry suit.

This is an example of direct characterization.


True
False

Answer 1

This is not an example of direct characterization because Brock’s personality isn’t clearly communicated to the reader. Instead, small details about him are given to readers for them to make inferences about. We can tell from the way that he is soothingly reassuring and trying not to frighten the dog that he is most likely compassionate and cares about animals. The author does not simply state “Brock was very compassionate and deeply cared for animals.”. Rather, they provide clues that lead us to that conclusion.