Dash Dunmire
Bateman
English 8-G3
18 October 2019
Characterization essay

Writers put a lot of effort into their stories to convey to the reader how they want them to feel about the story and how their perspective changes throughout the story. Sometimes writers want the reader to be in a specific mood for a specific part in the story and that mood to change at certain timings to have a different feeling if your perspective just stayed the same throughout the book. If you pay attention to a story you are reading closely you can see the details the writer puts into their story to make your perspective be the way it is. I will explain how writers change your perspective by using point of view, epiphanies, and main characters. I will explain how they do this with the story Seventy-six Dollars and Forty-nine cents by Kwame Alexander.
	One of the ways writers try and make your perspective of a story a certain way is because of point of view. An example of point of view in the story is,” and now they’re both talking and their mouths are shut. WHAT. IS. GOING. ON”(173). I think this is a good form of how point of view changes the perspective of the reader because the main character (Monk) is a star wars fan and believes in superstitious things, if we didn’t know about this beforehand we would see this differently. The quote also works very well for that character specifically because he believes in that type of stuff, if anyone else heard that they would think they were just hearing things or imagining things rather than him reading people’s thoughts. Another example of point of view would be,”After reading “Oranges” by Gary Soto (which I like) Mr. preston (who I don’t) asks us if we liked it (which I did) then makes us write (which I hate) our own memoirs. Now make it interesting (which im not) he adds, looking dead at me”(159). This scene helps shape the reader's perspective by Monk stating his opinion multiple times in a single sentence, this could show how Monk is opinionated as a person as this is the first page of the story. This could also follow up for the next part where he says why can’t there be a little fiction in my story, he says that he doesn’t have an interesting life so it sets the reader up that there would be some type of outrageous thing going to happen in the story and not be just a normal memoir. Monk is a good character to be in first person point of view because Monk is very thoughtful and thinks differently than most people. He likes star wars so he probably believes more in magic and that type of stuff so he would think of the situation he is in differently than if someone else was in the same position.
	Writers can also change your perspective of a story by having epiphanies in the story. An example of an epiphany in the story would be,”and they just keep talking, or thinking (out loud), back and forth, looking and listening, and it’s scary and funny at the same time.”(173). I think this works well as an epiphany because you get to see how the character reacts to being able to read people's thoughts. The character doesn’t understand what is going on and doesn’t know how to react when something big just happened that he just barely understands. Another example of epiphanies in the story is,”Who’s she talking about? I wonder,”You ain’t all that Monk, I don’t even know why everyone’s sweatin’ you. You’re such a geek” She says, and that’s when I realize I’m the lowlife.”(188). This works as an epiphany because he at first thought that he was doing the class a favor and he thought everyone was going to praise him, but what happened was people called him a lowlife and didn’t care what he did. Epiphanies help shape the character’s perspective which helps the reader understand more about the character. Monk has epiphanies of how he learned of how he was able to read thoughts and how people didn’t see him the way he thought they did and how they actually saw Monk.
	Another way writers try to change your perspective of the story is by making the main character a certain way or do certain actions, an example of this in the story is,”I was uncool useless, An empty pool in the summer. A pencil without lead. Macaroni without cheese. You get the point I was nothing a nobody, that was before.”(162). The author probably put this at the beginning of the story to set you up for what is about to happen, this prepares the reader and gets them more aware. This quote also shows you how the main character viewed themselves before whatever is about to take place happens. Another example of perspective being built through main characters is,”We were in Dads red Ford thunderbird on the New Jersey Turnpike listening to Harry Potter on tape. Dad falls asleep (while he’s driving) and Mom yells JAAACKKK which wakes me and my sister up and Jolts Dad back to life.”(168). This short section shows that the main character is in a good family and a good house, It says that he lives in New Jersey which  is a nice place to live. It shows how Monk’s dad has a nice car and his parents are together. I think this part is very good for perspective because it shows how you would view the character before you get to know the character fully. Main character development is a large part of a story, the story shows how the character views themselves and how other people would view them.