Throughout the chapters we have read in The Bible thus far, a number of difficult, upsetting and even traumatic events have occurred for the characters in The Bible, but how those characters feel about what has happened is rarely shared or discussed in the chapters. In literary terms, the characters in The Bible are known as "flat" or "one dimensional" characters, which means that they are not written as complex human beings, but rather as characters who serve a particular purpose in the plot. Why might creating stories with "flat" characters be a strategy for the writers of The Bible? What role might "flat" characters play? What goals might they help to achieve? Are there drawbacks to having "flat" characters? Are there any characters who do not appear to be "flat" characters in The Bible?
As you answer these questions, please refer to specific stories and characters to illustrate your point.
I think there is only one identifiably 3- dimensional or “round” character in the bible and that is God. He is the only one that can really be interpreted and whose personality and emotions show through. I think the reason that God is the only one with a personality is because his emotions and ideas are the catalysts for change as the world evolves. It was God who grew angry with his creations and decided to flood the Earth for example. No other character could do such a thing because none is complex of a character as God is. His emotions and personality are a great addition to his presence in the Bible. I think the reason behind all the other characters being “flat” or 1-dimensional was a strategy to keep God isolated as an all-powerful being and disconnect him from humans. It also is helpful in that since the Bible is a collection of story after story that is possibly myth, it’s easier to tell stories event by event. The characters only complete actions and aren’t shown with emotions because, I think, they are there to serve one or few purposes and that is for the religious education of a devotee. Obviously, the Bible is a spiritual book that attracts mainly Christians and Jews. I think the 1-dimensional characters are a strategy of teaching the devotees (or any reader). The characters flow through life on Earth, making mistakes and learning and I see that as a teaching tactic. I think the writers were trying to impose spiritual beliefs and teachings upon the readers by showing them how the characters in the bible make mistakes or get blessings. The only drawback to having “flat” characters are that they really only serve the purpose of spiritual enrichment and there is little character development.
ReplyDelete-Anna Ely
I agree with Anna that God is clearly a three dimensional character, and I think that he is a three dimensional character so that he can be different from the rest of the people. He has more wisdom, and power than the other people so he also has more dimensions to himself, and is able to perform actions that satisfy some of his characteristics. For example when God had found out that Isaac's wife was infertile he was able to make his wife, Rebekah fertile which showed a more compassionate side of God. I feel as though there are many flat characters, for one main reason. When I think about round characters or three dimensional characters they obviously have a lot of layers which could be deceiving, so with flat characters they are exactly as they appear, which is important because God only judges people by how they appear, and actions that they do, he doesn't look much into their reasoning or in other things that they may have done. He doesn't really give people two chances, it's one and done, so people's outer layer is the only one he sees and cares about. I think that there is a drawback to flat characters because sometimes I wish to know more about humans who are punished for making one mistake, because there is obviously much more to them then their one flaw, and seeing their layers would help justify, or in-justify Gods reactions or treatment to people. So by having flat characters it makes us as the reader feel as though God is doing the right thing, which is a favored effect for religions who use this book.
ReplyDeleteBella Deluca
The function of flat characters is to interact and help the main (round/three dimensional) characters through their character arc, and they’re necessary to keep a reader from quickly becoming overwhelmed with tons of rounded characters that are not a part of the overall plot or important. The Bible utilizes such flat characters, having them interact with the main characters in the story (God and the men God is interacting with) in order to aid/obstruct his character arc. For example, the wives Sarah and Rebekah exist solely as plot devices meant to a) bear children and b) further the character arcs of the male characters they are married or have given birth to. The drawbacks of having characters like Sarah and Rebekah is that you easily forget the circumstances leading up to the characters whose arcs they (Sarah and Rebekah) are supporting because they, in themselves, are forgettable. You don’t care who Sarah and Rebekah are, or even what they mean to the characters that they are influencing. They are simply there, more of an obstacle for a main character to surmount than an actual person. A big character who does not appear to be flat is God. He is being led through a character arc that changes him. With each person he interacts with, we learn a little more about him, and then may attempt to figure out why he is the way he is, what drives him, what he believes in, and what he wants out of his journey/creations, all of which are marks of a rounded character.
ReplyDeleteI think what we have read so far God is the only three dimensional character. He is the only that has distinguishable traits and an actual personality that we can analyze. I believe that God is the only one that has different traits and emotions because at the end of the day, what ever happens to the Earth is based on his emotions and reactions. For example, when he became infuriated, he took it upon himself to destroy the Earth by flooding it. Based on the characters we have met thus far, he is the only one that could hold such power and great impact on the world. I think the reason there are “flat” characters in stories to keep god the superior being amongst everyone in the universe. I think that the characters that don’t really have a personality, follow every word of God because they represent the followers of mainly Christianity. In addition, the one dimensional characters, I think are made to be very straight forward characters, like the common folk that read ad followed the teachings of this text. How the character’s mistakes are also something that the devotees could use for guidance in their personal lives. The cons of having “flat” characters (at least in this text), is that they really only help for guidance with a devotee’s spirituality and when looking at the bible as a non-religious text, there is no way to analyze characters in depth.
ReplyDeleteI agree with many of the things in the blogs above, especially that God is the most prominent if not the only three dimensional character. It has been proven that he is a three dimensional character through many of his actions thus far. When he first created Adam and Eve he gave them all they could need in the garden of Eden showing his more caring, loving side. But after they disobeyed one rule, which one could go into more depth about how great a sin this was, he punished them and the serpent quite severely. He showed both his gentler side and his harsher side in this instance. There are other examples of his many different personality shifts but this is just one. I think one of the points of having the rest of the characters be flat or one dimensional is so that we don't get to attached to them. There are lots and lots of different stories through out Genesis and for the most part there are different characters in each story. However God plays a key role in pretty much all of them. So I feel that the other characters are more just meant for props to demonstrate god’s incredible power.
ReplyDelete-Nicola Sommers
I agree with Bella and Anna. One of the major characters in this story that is 3-dimenional is God. It is clear that god stands out from the rest of the other characters in the bible. Throughout the bible God is mentioned as a powerful and superior being that the human race looks up to. His personality is reflected off of his actions and decisions. God can be seen as judgmental, when he wiped out the whole entire human population because they did not abide to his laws and follow his commandments. God can be described as ‘selfish’, he made Abraham chose between his son, Jacob, or god, himself. There are benefits and disadvantages when creating stories with flat characters. Flat characteristics could be one strategy the writer of the bible used because it allows the bible to flow in a faster pace without having to describe every single detail of each character. This method allows the writer to fit a lot of the events that happened in a few sentences and enables us to focus on the main characters instead. Like Anna said, this is a religious text that is mainly focused on god and his lessons. Flat Characters are vital in the bible because it helps the reader focus more on God and disregards the opinions and feelings of other characters.
ReplyDelete-Pinn
I agree with both Anna and Bella that the one recurring important character so far that can be classified as three-dimensional is God. This is because the rest of the characters (human beings) are only representations of the human race as a whole, which God manipulates as He pleases, as Anna mentioned before. I think what the author has shown by including so many “flat” characters in Genesis is that God really could have chosen anyone to be the subject of His experiments and tests on humankind; the only reason why He chose some people over others is because of a preferential trait that the person had which contributed to the single “flat” role they had to fulfill. For example, when God flooded the earth, he chose Noah and his family to survive and repopulate the world because Noah was the most obedient to God and was not evil and egoistic, like the rest of the population. This actually represents a goal that the writers of the Bible may have been trying to achieve: under God, everyone is equal, and He could choose anyone to experiment with or test, as he has done to many humans over the course of Genesis. The flat characters are simply devices to explain this idea. There are definitely drawbacks to having many “flat” characters in the story; it puts too much emphasis on one character or a small group of characters, which makes me feel like the balance of the story is off. In Genesis, the flat characters are just introduced, serve their purpose, and then they either die or leave. I understand that Genesis is supposed to be a story recounting the history of the Hebrew people and therefore characters will come and go while God remains; I just think that having more “round” characters that stay for a longer period of time and serve multiple purposes would work better.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly to Anna and Bella, I think that God is the only clear three-dimensional character that we have encountered thus far. His actions and contracts give us insight into His character and how he deals with the various ways His creations act towards Him and others. Since the Bible is meant to be used as a tool for educating followers of Christianity and Judaism, the one-dimensional characters are there to illustrate what the religion dictates as acceptable and unacceptable. Cain murdered his brother and lied to God, and was cursed for life, and has not been brought up again (so far). Eve convinced Adam to eat from the Tree of Knowledge and ate as well, cursing herself and women through the generations. The actions of the flat characters and the way that God punishes or rewards them is what’s important. Its goal is to teach the readers a moral code or philosophy; it is not meant to be a piece of literature in our traditional sense, with complex plot lines and characters. The problem with flat characters is that, as Eilidh said, they are easily forgettable. It would be difficult to remember which character angered or pleased God in which way. This furthers the idea that it is not the personality of the characters that is valuable to most readers; it is their actions and the consequences.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anna and Bella when they discussed how God was a three dimensional or complex character in Genesis. God is set apart from humans and animals by being so volatile by starting over with the flood, killing most of the human and animal population or when he notices that someone wants to have a baby, but is unable to, and he/she has been loyal to God, the Lord rewards him/her with a child. In Genesis, when you have "flat" characters, it makes the story flow smoother because when someone is very 1 dimensional, it is easy to predict what their actions are or how they will react to a certain event. Flat characters are often more susceptible to change and that either lets something be peaceful or results in conflict. Also, it is way easier for a reader to keep track of many flat characters than round ones, and in Genesis, there are many characters, so it is nice to simply just know a little about a person. But this leads to a downside, which is that you can't really develop an intricate storyline when things are either obvious or straightforward. This, however, may be a positive for the Bible because the writers didn't really want to make a novel series focusing on the lives of two humans experiencing embarrassment for the first time. The authors wanted to get a concise message through to the reader. Lastly, I want to emphasize that flat characters are just as, if not more, important than round characters. Without them, most literature would be lost ( not literally gone). They contribute so much to the storyline and aid others in achieving goals in writing.
ReplyDeleteI believe they create flat characters in the bible because they want to get through time faster with minimal detail, because they can't tell every story in history. Also, just to give you a overview of how life was, and who started different places. The writers don't want to focus on it, but feel it is important to include in the book. They also include how generations of children start by kind of explaining how different kind of people are populating the world. Flat characters can play an important role in the bible. For example, Ham was a rather flat character but was in a incident and explained exactly why God flooded the Earth. Ham saw his dad naked and kept looking, which is evil. This was important for the reader to see that God could be reasonable and not just bad. The only character so far that is completely round is God. We see many sides of God, in many scenarios. We know a lot about God, which we can say about more than others. We see how God is evolving, and changing. We see his emotions differ on a tremendous scale a lot of good and evil.
ReplyDeleteSo far in Genesis, we've encountered lots of 1 dimensional characters human being, which are contrast to the 3 dimensional God. The flat characters existed in huge numbers but only appeared once under a name or their role in the story is really trivial and simple. There are two major types of flat characters. The characters such as Abraham and Noah are the obedience, following God request without question. Their reverence for God support him as a central figure of knowledge with all the answers in Genesis. We also saw characters whose their purpose are conducting mischief that requires God judgement such as Cain, Abel or Adam, Eve, Serpent. These characters existence allows God to appear as an image of justice and fairness who restore the balance of the world. Then we have more trivial characters that existed beside the previous two types of characters in order to form a complete story. Even more trivial are the one time named characters which to illustrate the fruitful multiplication of a generation in brief. Therefore, in this crowd of flat characters, along with all the superior knowledge and power compared to human, this additional depth in character is what set God apart, what makes him a "God". By having a separation between God and human, the Bible formed a strong belief for religious followers by which their actions and thoughts are primarily guided by the ultimate righteous power of God. However, if there are too many of these flat characters, the drawback can be boring, repeated mold of stories without any gradual character development.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what has been said about god being the only round character introduced thus far. I found his personality particularly apparent during the story of Adam and Eve. God showed that he was threatened by them gaining knowledge in his response to their actions. He also seemed to act rashly and threw his children out of “his home”. I think that the other characters in the bible may be portrayed as “flat” in order to show the difference in mental capacity between God and humans.This would make sense as humans are supposed to be simpler beings who are all part of god's plan. As humans abide by his basic will, we are not portrayed as thinking or feeling nearly as much as god is.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteGenesis is filled with "flat" characters that only serve one purpose to the story. The only "complex" character is God, who has power over Man. God is the only who has a humane personality although he is far from human. Like Anna said, I think God is the only "3 Dimensional" character because He is the only one who has the power to change the one. Genesis is shaped to fit based on how God is feeling. If God feels unsatisfied with how man had become, he cleansed the entire earth. In modern day, the Bible is used to teach Christians and Jews about teachings from the Genesis. The "flat" characters function to do one thing, which is either good or evil in the eye of God. The flat characters speed up the purpose of the Genesis which is to tell the story of the creation of Judiasm. The "flat" characters are just puppets that God manipulates in order to achieve his goals. Genesis is a very long book, and cannot focus on one character for the whole book. After a "one dimensional" character as served his/her purpose, they are easily forgotten.