Balzac Character Analysis

Some readers might view that minor characters as irrelevant in the story or have a minimal part that will affect the story and the main character. The whole plot is focused on the main character only. However they do play a big part towards the main character in the story. Main characters do not only develop independently and throughout events and conflicts of a plot of a story. Authors use the literary techniques of minor characters to help develop the main character’s actions and how they are portrayed at the beginning and at the end of the story. Minor characters can also be used to construct the conflicts in the story that affect the main character therefore finding a solution to solve the conflict . Balzac is about two boys being reeducated.

For instance the Chief from the Chinese Seamstress and the Mother from the boat, both affect the main character and make their lives miserable. In Balzac, the headmaster of the village was the leader and formed the schedules that the narrator will follow. He made the narrator do tasks while living in Phoenix Mountain. The task were difficult and caused him to do strenuous work. Hence making the Narrator fatigued and having an arduous life during his reeducation . This happened throughout the plot of the story. “It was time for the annual village tax contribution, and the headman had divided the total weight of rice by the number of villagers, each one being charged with carrying about sixty kilos.” (sije, pg.36). The narrator along with other characters had to carry heaps of rice and had to hike up several long steep paths in Phoenix Mountain where they reside in. They surprisingly had to do it in even in ominous snow storms. These tasks were assigned by the headman of the narrator’s village. The headman of the village assigns him to accomplish this task multiple times. The headman also has somewhat of a detestation towards the narrator “Saying this, he spat on the floor, a sure sign that he would get violent if I didn’t go with him.” (sije, pg. 90). This scene was when the headman realized that the narrator was using recreationary texts and novels and spreading them to other individuals. The flaws and the conflicts created by the narrator are occasionally taken to account and punished by the headman. The narrator attempts to look for a way to escape and breakout from the hardships and hatred bestowed on him from the village headman. Alistair Mcleod also uses a the mother a minor character, to show the hardship that affect the main character. The mother in the boat has a slight malevolent personality towards the main character which is the narrator and to other characters. “