Anatomy of a Character - Making a Body Biography

Literary analysis is one of the major focal points of eighth-grade English class at Shore, but it is also one of the more difficult skills to teach and master. It is a critical thinking skill that students will use the rest of their lives, well beyond reading literature. The ability to break an idea apart into small pieces to better understand it, and then piece it back together to create an even stronger understanding, is a vital intellectual skill. Considering this, it might surprise you that one of the ways we tackle this in eighth grade is by coloring!

The Body Biography project we do in eighth-grade English is essentially a full-size illustration of an assigned character from a novel. However, and this is key, students do not draw what the character looks like and ignore most aspects of the character’s physical appearance. Instead, working in small groups, students create a visual representation of all the key elements the author uses to develop the character over the course of the novel. The end result is a large poster filled with hand-drawn images, symbols, and various visual representations of what makes that character unique. Combine these with direct quotes from the text to back up their choices, and the students have crafted an in-depth visual analysis that explores literary characters in a complex way. 

What you see in the finished product can be confusing at first, but it becomes clearer when you break the image down by segments of the body. In the head, students are tasked with visualizing the characters’ thoughts throughout the story. In the chest and torso, students are asked: What does this character feel? What would their heart look like symbolically? The arms include what actions the character takes, and more figuratively, what this character holds onto. For the legs, students must consider what grounds this character; what are their fundamental beliefs? Finally, in the space around the character, students illustrate the ways in which their assigned character interacts with others and the world around them. Each section includes evidence from the text to support their choices and analysis. 

In the fall of eighth grade, literary analysis is an important feature of the writing we do in class. Students compose paragraphs and major essays analyzing symbolism, theme, or character development in the novels we read. We take our time practicing these crucial skills and deepen our understanding of the writing process. Each year, however, I marvel at how the Body Biography project aids in the development of analytical thinking skills amongst the students. It takes the abstract thinking required in that process and puts it visually on paper in a concrete way. It is a moment when this work begins to click for many eighth graders. It is well worth the break from regular class time to gather around a large poster paper to draw and color!