There are many ways to organize writing, one of which is to compare and contrast. To compare and contrast means to find the similarities and differences between two objects. In the world of literature, characters are the most important aspect of a story. They drive the plot forward and keep readers engaged. This is why most times the comparing and contrasting in stories are between two characters of the story. The story “The Gold Cadillac” talks about Louis’s father getting a new Cadillac, which upsets mother. They decide to travel to Mississippi to show off their car. They went and had to take a humble, ordinary car back. “The Bracelet” talks about a young Japanese girl named Ruri, who was forced to go to internment camps due to WWII. Her friend gives her a bracelet, which she loses. Her mother reminds her that it is more important to remember than to keep something physically. “Nadia the Willful” talks about a girl living in the desert helping her father to get over the death of her brother. These three stories can all be decomposed into the comparing and contrasting of the characters.
One of the most important aspects of compare and contrast is analyzing the physical actions of the characters in the stories. Such kind of comparing and contrasting is the most direct way, because it is usually directly said in the stories themselves. These are the similarities and differences between the basic actions that the characters do, including how they interact with each other. In “Nadia the Willful”, we can compare the actions of Nadia and her father, as Nadia wanted people to remember, and her father wanted everyone to elude the name. Nadia had the right idea, which is that remembrance is the most important. In “The Bracelet”, Ruri can be compared with her mother as she was sad that she lost the bracelet, but her mother has a different way of thinking. Her mother gave her the idea to remember the actual people rather than worry about the physical objects. In “The Gold Cadillac”, such is the same. The father was arguing with mother about the Cadillac, where father was proud, and mother was worried. This worked out when father realized that driving such a fancy car around might have been a bad idea as well. Therefore, when comparing and contrasting between characters, we should include the analysis of the physical actions of the characters.
The order of events of the characters in any story can also be contrasted as well. This order gives us a strong sense of time and can help us have a deeper understanding of how specific characters changed over periods of time. In “Nadia the Willful”, at first Nadia’s father wanted no one to say the word “Hamed”, but then he listened to his daughter and changed his mind. This shows how Nadia’s father accepts change. In “The Bracelet”, Ruri was very sad about her bracelet, and was not able to get over the loss of her friend’s gift until her mother helped her get over it. We should listen to other’s suggestions just like Ruri does in the story. In “The Gold Cadillac”, father was thinking that it was a good idea to drive to Mississippi, but changed his mind after he actually went. This shows how reality can teach us lessons without our knowing. As you can see, comparing the times of when events happened is very important when analyzing how characters learn and how we should learn from their experiences.
The most important things are there in people’s minds, as we should compare and contrast the emotions of the individual characters as well. These emotions lead us to be able to understand each character, in general the entire story, at a much deeper level. In “Nadia the Willful”, Nadia and her father are similar because they both are kind and gracious to people, and think for others. Though their reputation at the beginning of the story is different, their new reputations were the same at the end of the story. In “The Bracelet”, Ruri experiences a great range of emotions from fear to sadness to hope. These emotions will help her understand herself more clearly, meaning that she will have a deeper understanding of her identity. In “The Gold Cadillac”, Dad and Lois were very excited at the beginning, but when they faced racism in Mississippi, they had a change in emotion, when they realized that it was worse than they thought. These emotions helped them face reality, which included the racism that they were faced against. Comparing and contrasting these emotions of various characters can greatly help us in understanding the characters of a story, and the story itself.
There are many ways to analyze a story, and compare and contrast is one of these ways. Compare and contrast is, in fact, one of the best ways to analyze a story. This is primarily because it shows us a deeper level of what characters do, what they think, and the relationships between their actions and their mental thinking. To compare and contrast between characters or one character, there are three main aspects to consider: the physical actions, the order of events these actions happen in, as well as the emotions the characters feel and how they change over periods of time. Physical actions are just simply how characters act differently or similarly to each other. When considering the time of events, it is important to consider the chronological order characters are feeling, on a deeper level, what they learned. Emotions are the feelings of characters and how they affect the character’s decision-making. When comparing and contrasting, it is also important to find lessons that the characters have learned in the story or the message that the author might have been trying to convey. Such a way of taking apart a story and applying compare and contrast is beneficial to us in understanding the story itself, as well as learning new lessons for our lives.
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