2. Characters and their roles.
The hero of my book if there is one at all is Timmy. He can be identified as the hero as it is his story and his
situation that we are following and ultimately reading to see how it will be resolved. He does not have heroic traits
to rival a villain, this is because it is not that type of plot. There is no existent villain as a character in the story. The
character playing the hero also plays the part of the villain in a way as it is his own problem he is attempting to fix,
which also means he is the dispatcher. The task he is set is a problem that is very friendly to a child, there is no
mention of violence or of an opposing force.
The other characters in the book offer advise and try to help Timmy with his problem, the advise he receives that
fails to help him can be seen as the anti-hero as it acts against him to achieve his goal. He goes about it the wrong
way, this is a stretch to call it this since the book does not follow general structure identified by Vladimir Propp.
Towards the end of the book on the eighth page he is given the help he requires by Billy the Bear, who instructs
him to use a tree to itch his back. This makes Billy the donor character as this is the iteminformation assistance
he needs to end his story and return life to equilibrium. The helper characters are every other character in the
book that isn’t Timmy as they all attempt to assist him even if they are unsuccessful.
Theoretically the book could indeed have a villain, just not displayed as a character but as an element of the story.
In this case it plosive ably be there lack of the ability to itch his own back, specifically his short arms. That would
make the goal or princess the moment when he satisfies his itch, coinciding with the villain which works against
the hero, in this case it would make sense for the arms to be exactly that. This would make the binary opposition
the length of his arms vs his willpower. This is just speculation, offering a second theory and ways of viewing the
book rather than the obvious, that the book is as it would seam at first glance.
3. Plot and structure.
The story begins in equilibrium, on the first page there is a disruption of the equilibrium, which is the
occurrence of the itch. The story is revolved around how the main character or hero tries to return events
to equilibrium, by satisfying his itch. There is no binary opposition, this makes the story very lighthearted
and easy for a young reader to feel comfortable with, there is absolutely no chance of the book being
considered inappropriate, and can be read universally. My target audience is a very young age, under 5.
The story ties in at the end nicely making it a single-strand story with a linear plot. The plot stays firmly on
topic, perhaps with out limited time to complete the project, extra pages opening up expanded plot paths
could be explored.
The story is non-realist as something like this cannot conceivably happen, as the animals portrayed in my
book are anthropomorphisms. While the story cannot be real as it is a more believable story could be
made using humans instead of animals. Although the plot would need changing to an extent.
The story is completely single strand currently. It has the ability to have a multi-strand story. This would be
if I made sequel books that do not directly follow the plot. For example Timmy could have a different
problem that would be attempted to be solved by his friends once again.
