Direct Characterization

"He had a tendency to play the tough soldier role, always posturing, alwasy puffing himself up, and on occasion he took it way too far." pg 82
A direct characterization is an instance where the author directly describes the personality of the character. In this chapter (chapter 7) O'Brien really does a good job of giving the reader an idea of the personality behind the name Curt Lemon. Curt Lemon is mentioned several times in the story but i feel like this chapter really brought his character to life. O'Brien portrays Lemon as a "showy" type of person through his description (above) as well as the two brief examples he includes within this chapter. The first example mentioned is the joke Lemon played on Halloween. Apparently on Halloween Curt Lemon painted himself and went out trick-or-treating. Curt also shows off when he is required to see the dentist but cannot face his fear. Pride eventually over-takes him and he has the dentist pull out a perfectly good tooth. Through all of these instances Curt Lemon is directly described as a show-off. The type of guy that "couldn't stop bragging". (pg 82)