Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Character Stereotyping--Superman

“Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!”

He first appeared in 1933, as The Reign of the Superman, a short story from Science Fiction: The Advance Guard of Future Civilization #3, an amateur produced magazine published by Jerry Siegel. a high school student at the time. At the time he was a bald, telepathic villain bent on world domination, rough and aggressive. Siegel later turned him into a hero.

Over the years and many publications and screen appearances, Superman’s character still can be considered a stereotypical hero but with several character traits. Nowadays, he’s brave, kindhearted, moral, just and righteous, even mild-mannered unlike his original form. He’s now a better developed hero with an alter ego and a love interest.

Although avoided in literary fiction, stereotypes are used in many stories, and they are often necessary. Detective stories in series, such as in Sherlock Holmes, usually start with a stereotype and although the character’s essence stays consistent, some development still occurs in him as the series progress.

Thus, in most fiction, characters born as stereotypes can be improved, through creative process, into somewhat rounded ones. This is perfectly acceptable, especially in short fiction. For a short story, several overdeveloped characters would take too much space on the page and would even be boring for the reader, because in stories with several characters, all characters cannot be unique, lively, and memorable.

A novel is different, however. Even in a novel, not all characters should be as well developed as the protagonist and the antagonist. For example, if a reader’s attention stays with a secondary character more than the protagonist, that novel can be considered a lopsided flop.

When the character we create seems to be one-sided or stereotypical, I suggest for me and for anyone else, to write a few scenes and vignettes, off-story, putting him in different situations other than the situations in the story. For example, we can send him shopping, to movies, to his mother’s house, to war, or give him some childhood memories, a serious altercation with someone, or a disease or impediment.

As in everything, proper balance is the key, and the reason I wrote this entry has to do with being afraid of stereotypes--since I fear them myself; however, If we come up with a stereotype, we can develop him to the degree that he’s an acceptable character.