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Chapter 13: Building Character with Objects and Possessions
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✓ Write about one of your characters receiving a gift that she likes. Then write
about her receiving a gift she doesn’t like.
✓ Write about your character finding something on the street or in her
house:
• Does she like it?
• Does she decide to keep it?
• Does she decide to hand it in somewhere or find out who its
owner is?
✓ Write about your character receiving a strange object in a will.
✓ Write about your character exchanging a possession with someone else.
Is she happy with the exchange?
In Dostoyevsky’s 1869 novel The Idiot, Prince Myshkin exchanges his simple
tin cross for Rogozhin’s golden one, becoming ‘brothers’. This exchange symbolises
a mysterious and yet unequal connection between the characters, who
are in many ways opposites of one another.
Owning objects(and being
owned by them)
Possessing objects can be a trap. Characters can become so attached to them
that they’re unable to move on in their lives – think of fanatical collectors or
people who hoard things, from newspapers to old pieces of wrapping paper
and even plastic bags. For such people, the loss of a possession can seem a
blow at first but may also represent a form of freedom.
Historical attitudes to possessions are interesting
and can provide insights you can use to
depict your characters’ psychological relationships
to objects.
In ancient Egypt, people were buried with significant
objects, because the belief was that
You can’t take it with you
these would be needed on the journey to or in
the afterlife. People often cling on to things as if
they’ll protect them. But as this passage from the
New Testament reminds: ‘For we brought nothing
into this world, and it is certain we can carry
nothing out’ (King James Bible, 1 Timothy 6:7).