And 7 Pages Later...An Indirect Characterization!

"She had a squat, almost bulldoggy figure, and her odd black hair, when it grew, grew upwards so it never covered her ears or chunky neck....In fact, she didn't tend to speak much to us when we were younger. It was only in the Seniors, really, we'd started to appreciate her brisk style." (Page 26)

       These previous words are a description of Miss Lucy that, at first glance, seem to mirror the description of dear, old Miss Geraldine. However, as Miss Geraldine's description depicted her mannerisms and qualities, the description of Miss Lucy portrays her physical appearance and how she relates to her students. In fact, Miss Lucy is said to be the opposite of Miss Geraldine. Not only do students not approach Miss Lucy for comforting conversations, they barely talk to her until they are Seniors. Also, they only approach her then because she challenges them to be better than her, especially in athletics. Like Miss Geraldine, she is not an important character. Nor will she probably play a pivotal role in the course of the story, but she is described differently. Why is that? My best guess is for variation. The story would not flow well if with every 7 pages came another clone of the initial description. It also adds dimensions between the characters. Miss Geraldine only warrants a straight description while Miss Lucy takes a bit more time because her ability to relate to others is diagnosed. It may also be a device to explain which character is deeper. Miss Lucy represents a talk with Tommy about his creativity, but she was also presented as angry in one instance so far. Whereas Miss Geraldine was all goodness and kindness. I'm interested to see if Miss Lucy actually turns out to have a significant role based on the information she tried to disclose to Tommy about the donors. Time will tell...