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Character Perspective and Bias 119

Character’s Actions May Reveal . . .
A father tells his children long, This character spends a lot of time thinking CHARACTER
heroic stories about their about his own father, admires the grandfather’s
grandfather’s military service. patriotism, and wants to inspire those feelings
within his own kids.
A neighbor opens her home one This character has the resources and space to
night a week for the neighborhood feed many people; she enjoys sharing meals
CHARACTER to eat dinner together for free. with her community and values them like family.
A detective methodically
Perspective and Bias This character is thorough and detail-oriented;
they may be very calculating in their thinking
interviews every person who was
at the scene of a crime. processes.
An older sibling gently drapes a
This character cares about their sibling’s
Help When and Where It Is Needed
AP Enduring Understanding
®
blanket over their younger sibling
comfort and won’t take advantage of them
Copyright (c) 2023 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Uncorrected proofs were used with this sample chapter.
as they take a nap.
when they’re vulnerable.
Characters in literature allow readers to study and explore a range of values, beliefs,
This character may be projecting insecurities
A bully mocks someone’s

assumptions, biases, and cultural norms represented by those characters.
Key Point Boxes Help Identify the Focus of the Workshop
about their own appearance onto someone
appearance or clothing.
they can control.
This character may act on impulse and
A friend bursts into a room and
At the start of each Big Idea Workshop, Key Point
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution.
exclaims a scandalous secret that
assume that they are entitled to share
You can tell a lot about people based on the content that they post on their
boxes provide insight about the focused skill within
they just heard.
information without discretion, consideration
social media profile. For example, you can potentially figure out their sense
for others, or concerns about consequences.
the Big Idea.
KEY POINT of humor, their taste in music, or their views of current events. You’d also get
a sense of how often they engage with social media and respond to online
A character or content. While you cannot learn everything about people solely based on their
INSIDER
Perspective contributes to tone. Tone is by definition
speaker’s perspec- online activity, it’s one source of clues about the person running the accoun
an attitude. A character’s perspective often conveys his t.
tive and biases AP ® TIP or her attitude about a character, event, place, or idea in a
are shaped by his 122 Unit 2 Analyzing Comparisons and Representations
literary work.
or her past. These At-a-Glance Reference Tables
biases appear in the Values Influence Character’s Perspective
character’s choices, PRACTICE TEXT
actions, dialogue, Characters must navigate their fictional worlds from their own perspectives ,
A CHARACTER’S PERSPECTIVE
internal thoughts, which often seem as complex and nuanced as people’s perspectives in real life.
Character Details Consider the Implications
and interactions Readers learn about a character’s values through details about his or her thoughts,
Character’s

with others. words, and actions. • What past experiences have affected the character?
Verses upon the Burning
background

• Where is the character from?

As with people in real life, the perspectives of characters are influenced by
• What role does the character fulfill in his or her community?

127
of our House
their backgrounds, their education, their families, and their past experiences.
Lisa Parker Snapping Beans
• Who is the character’s family?

Even apparently minor details in the story can provide helpful information about
•
• Does the character have a religious background?

ound?
Does the character have a r

eligious backgr

Anne Bradstreet
a character’s perspective. Characters reveal their perspectives and biases in their

•
• What do the choices a character makes reveal about his or her values?

What do the choices a character makes r

Character’s actions
eveal about his or her values?
Character’s actions

SHIFTS AND CONTRASTS
assumptions about others, the stories they tell, their secrets, their decision-making
and choices
and choices

What factors does the character consider when deciding what to do?

• What factors does the character consider when deciding what to do?
•
Signal process, and even their misperceptions. STRUCTURE
Effect
THE TEXT IN CONTEXT

Is the character consistent in what he or she does?
• Is the character consistent in what he or she does?
•
Shift • Contrasting transition words (e.g., but, Provides a revelation f e deciding to act or not to act?

•
Anne Bradstreet (1612–1672) was born to an affluent Puritan amily

• What factors does a character consider before deciding to act or not to act?
What factors does a character consider befor
however, yet ) in Northampton, England. An unusually well-educated woman
Gives new insight or understanding
at the time, she (along with her husband and parents) emigrated
• Syntactic markers (e.g., isolated simple Signals a change in perspective, tone, (continued) Courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts
Discovering a Character’s Perspective

o
f
Dozens of
zen
s o
D
sentences) to Massachusetts as part of John Winthrop’s Puritan fleet in Dozens of color-coded
or attitude
Readers can learn about a character’s biases through a character’s choices and

1630. These settlers sought to practice a purer form of English
• Punctuation (e.g., use of question mark,
reference charts and
dash, colon, parentheses) Protestantism free from the official Church of England, which reference charts

actions. How characters act toward people who are different from them, how
instructional graphics help

• Structural changes (e.g., change in sidered corrupt. Like many of the Puritans, Bradstreet instructional graphics
they con
they apologize to someone close to them, and even how they adapt to new
found the hardships of the New World difficult. She began writing
paragraph or stanza, one-sentence
students understand the effects
circumstances — all of these may reveal a character’s perspective or bias. Indeed,
paragraphs) poems in the early 1630s that reflected both her religion and students understand the effects
an astute reader not only infers a character’s values (ideas, attitudes, or beliefs
of an author’s literary choices

her personal e
• A change in the connotation of words or xperiences — especially the fragility of human life, of an author’s literary choices
language about the human condition) from all the elements of characterization but also
i
the mpermanence of material things, and her hope for religious
and strategies.
salvation. Later, her poetry became more personal, as she meditated on herself and her
applies that information when interpreting other parts of the text.

Contrast • A back-and-forth movement in dialogue, Shows values in tension or debate and strategies.

plot, or other elements that create contrast Highlights positive or negative aspects
domestic life as the mother of eight children. In the 1666 poem “Verses upon the Burning of
Characters may even be unaware that they are revealing information about
our House,” Bradstreet reflects on a personal experience that had an important meaning.
• Frequent changes in speaker, imagery, of each side

their values and biases to the reader.
®
AP Skills Practice and Places emphasis on ideas

point of view
• Contrasting words (e.g., I and we; then and Prompts reflection through the contrast

Graphic Organizers AP PRACTICE CHARACTER
® SKILLS
now) or images
Describing a Character’s Perspective
AP® Skills Practice is integrated
118
throughout the book to support As you read “Verses upon the Burning of our House,” consider how details in the
poem help reveal the speaker’s perspective. Record your notes in the graphic
skill development in an approachable organizer.
GUIDED READING
and structured way. Analyzing a Character’s Perspective
Clicking on the document icon Details from What the Details Reveal
in the ebook opens up an interactive Considerations the Text about Perspective
Character’s background
Snapping Beans
Graphic Organizer that mirrors that Character’s actions and choices
found in the print book and helps stu- Character’s internal thoughts
Lisa Parker

dents stay organized as they read and Dialogue
study key texts. They are also available Interactions with others
THE TEXT IN CONTEXT
in the AP® English Literature Skills
Born and raised in Fauquier County, Virginia, poet
Lisa Parker (b. 1972) often writes about rural and
Practice Workbook.
southern life. She graduated from George Mason
University and earned her MFA in poetry from Penn Courtesy of Laura Coleman
Corresponding Graphic Organizers are available to teachers as generalized blackline
State University. Her work has been published in
masters that provide structured support for any text selection in the book.
several journals, including Southern Review , The
Louisville Review , and Appalachian Heritage . Parker’s xi
2010 poetry collection The Gone Place won the Weatherford Prize from Berea College
and the Appalachian Studies Association. In “Snapping Beans,” Parker presents a
conversation between a grandmother and her college-aged granddaughter.
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