Impact of A Character's Looks on their Lives

By Elaine L. Orr

A person's physical features affect them and those they interact with. This can seem obvious -- someone who loses a limb makes a number of adaptations. They might also quit sports activities, which were very important until now. That could foster resentment and even change some close relationships -- former team members become "only" buddies. A sense of exclusion builds.

A character's negative emotions -- anger, grief, fear, resentment -- play a major role in antagonists' motives. Big changes aside, how much do our everyday attributes affect who we are? A parent with a gorgeous girl or boy could often hear, "She could be a model. He could be an actor." The child comes to expect the compliments.

I believe it can be easier for good-looking children and adults to make friends, get hired, and find dates. If you're thinking that speaks to a certain human shallowness, you're right. 

I've never forgotten a secretary in the counseling office at my high school. She was not attractive in a traditional sense, but was universally liked for her helpfulness and upbeat attitude. She said, "My mother said not everyone can be good looking, but they can always wear a smile and good perfume." I wish I could remember the context of her comment. 

The phrase "beauty is only skin deep" is something I heard my own mother say many times. But not everyone grew up hearing that perspective. Other parents may have called people ugly, fat, or stupid. Probably not to someone's face, since nasty insults are generally thrown out by spineless cowards. Still, their kids learned it's okay to make hurtful comments and it affects how they see and treat people.

Authors describe characters through what they wear, say, do, or think. 

The kid with buck teeth and a limp can grow into someone who blends into the shadows or a tough guy (or gal) whose adult persona will take on anyone who looks at them with a smirk. An author could reveal the tough guy's past -- or not. Readers don't have to know why a night club bouncer likes that job, only that they tossed the hero out on their ass when they tried to gain entry.

The same bouncer may open the door for someone with a low-cut dress, good figure, and big smile. Or broad shoulders and a jersey with the emblem of a favorite team.  My point is that the glamorous woman or handsome man expects to be welcomed. They approach life with the poise of someone used to getting their way because their good looks helped foster success all their life.

It's an author's challenge to show if or how physical appearance has affected a character. In Deep Freeze, a Virgil Flowers novel by John Sandford, the murdered female banker was very pretty (though not the prettiest in high school), born into wealth, hung out with the cool kids in high school and at the country club, got glamorous jobs, and came back home to run the bank. 

Readers never know what she thinks, only how the ways she acted -- condescending, sometimes mean to those in lesser circumstances -- may have affected her death. (Hint, it was probably the arrogance.) 

Would she have been different without a life of good looks and clothes? Yes, other factors would make a difference. But it's the comment of a high school alum she snubbed that says a lot. That woman is portrayed a average, if now dowdy, and worked as a bookkeeper in a boot factory. She says she and her husband (shown as caring parents) volunteered at the food pantry and served as bell ringers collecting funds for the poor. She wasn't bragging, she simply characterized this as contributing a lot more than any check the dead woman had written to get her name on a publicized list of donors.

Looks don't matter if you're dead, of course. 

Awkward, not-so-handsome characters can come out ahead. Think of Bert in The Big Bang Theory. He's meant to look ungainly and badly dressed (though no guy in that series is a fashion trendsetter), and he works in a field (geology) that the main character mocks. But Bert gets a MacArthur Grant. (Sometimes called Genius Grants, there's no application process and it's a lot of cash to someone who achieves a lot). My sense is producer Chuck Lorre has thumbed his nose at stereotypes in a big way.

Stereotypes begin with fables, which portray the ugly stepsisters and handsome prince in Cinderella, The challenge with more subtle writing is to convey characters and motives through more than appearances.

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