The Kilted Writer

The Giver , by Lois Lowry, contains a lot of mind, body, and spirit symbolism on a variety of levels. First is Jonas and his two friends, Asher and Fiona. Jonas is the mind, Asher the body, and Fiona the spirit. Second is Jonas's family. His father is the spirit, his mother is the mind, and the children in the household collectively make up a body character. When examined individually, however, Jonas is the mind, Lily (his sister) is the spirit, and Gabriel (the child from the nursery they are nurturing during the night) is the body. I just glossed over this without giving any real reasons as to why this is true because I want to get into a slightly different topic. In my workshops, I often talk about occupations and their relation to the mind, body, and spirit symbolism. The Giver is a great example of the use of occupations to help strengthen your character symbolism. Spirit characters have a lot of compassion and tend to put their "cause" ahead of themselves. In...

There are two versions of the movie True Grit , both based on the novel by Charles Portis of the same title. While the remake is every bit as good as the original, in a lot of respects, it lacks one key element. In the climactic scene where Rooster Cogburn charges down four members of the outlaw gang led by Lucky Ned Pepper over an open field, the original movie starring John Wayne had a wall of aspen trees as the backdrop. The remake has no such majesty in this key scene. As for the plot, we have three main characters who are all out to find an outlaw, each for their own reasons. Mattie Ross wants justice for her father's murder. LaBoeuf (pronounced "LaBeef") wants a big reward being offered in Texas, and Rooster Cogburn wants to rid the country of one more malcontent while helping the young Mattie find her justice. The Mind Character: Mattie Ross Mattie is introduced meeting with the town's undertaker about her father's body. He has been brut...

Normally, I would introduce the book and tell you about each of the three character types. In this post, though, I want to focus on the interaction between the mind and spirit characters in Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees . The book shows how three sisters, May, June, and August, work to transform a fourth character, Lily Owens. May is the body character, June is the mind character, and August is the spirit character in the story. In the following passage, August and June are discussing what to do about Lily, who has just recently entered into their care. The Setup: For those who are unfamiliar with the book or the movie, here is how the story develops up to the interaction I will be breaking down. Lily is a teenage white girl in 1960's South Carolina. Her mother was killed when she was young in a tragic accident, so she lives alone with an abusive father. She runs away with a black housekeeper, who is a fugitive from the law, and winds up with thre...

My wife suggested "The Cat Who..." series by Lilian Jackson Braun would make a good study in mind, body, and spirit symbolism. When I decided to take a look, she suggested I read The Cat Who Played Post Office , which I recently did, and she was right. While this book was not very good for examining Yum Yum's character, the characteristics written into Qwilleran and Koko are clear. Yum Yum's characteristics are clearer in other books in the series. The Body Character: Yum Yum Yum yum plays a minor role in The Cat Who Played Post Office , and according to other sites I found about the series, does not play a big role in solving many of the mysteries Qwill and Koko face. Even so, she does play a big role in the series. Yum Yum is more affectionate than Koko and has outstanding dexterity. She opens drawers, operates switches, and performs a variety of such manual labor tasks. Her ability to steal objects earned her the name, "Yum Yum the Paw."...

In previous posts, I've taken a look at the mind and body characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby . In this final post in the series, I will look at the presentation of the spirit character. The Spirit Character: Jay Gatsby Introductions are important and set the stage for the type of character a writer intends to present. Jay Gatsby is first shown emerging from the shadows to examine the stars. ...a figure had emerged from the shadow of my neighbor's mansion... Something in his leisurely movements and the secure position of his feet upon the lawn suggested that it was Mr. Gatsby himself, come out to determine what share was his of our local heavens. Gatsby reaches out toward a green light across the water, which we discover later is the direction of Daisy's house. He then disappears as mysteriously as he arrived on the scene. When I looked once more for Gatsby, he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness. An a...

Like Nick Carraway, Tom Buchanan is the quintessential embodiment of his character type, and this is clear from the moment he is introduced in the book. The Body Character: Tom Buchanan Tom's introduction firmly defines him as a body character. He is standing on the front porch of his home as Nick approaches and describes him as a: sturdy straw-haired man of thirty...hard mouth...two shining arrogant eyes...appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Nick summarizes Tom's character by saying: "Now don't think my opinion on these matters is final," he seemed to say, "just because I am stronger and more of a man than you are." Tom is given to alcohol more than any other of the main characters in the book and is having an affair. He even admits to "making a fool of himself," but is jealous that Daisy and Gatsby might be having an affair. In fact, he is very much a hypocrite on the matter of extramarital relationshi...

(Note: This post was originally written in July 2013) With the recent movie release, I thought I would reread The Great Gatsby . In doing so, I discovered yet another fine example of mind, body, and spirit in literature, which I will show you in this series of posts. The Mind Character: Nick Carraway The book is written in first person, past tense, with Nick Carraway as the narrator. He introduces himself like this: In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since, After explaining what the advice was, he writes: ...I understand he meant a great deal more than that After introducing himself and several other characters, Nick ends up in an apartment in NY with Tom Buchanan, Tom's mistress, and a group of merrymakers, but he doesn't quite fit in with this crowd. He isn't a big drinker and doesn't have a girl of his own, so he sits in a chair reading a book. ...either it w...

When Siddhartha leaves the followers of Gotama , he encounters a ferryman who allows him passage for no charge. The ferryman is a kind man for whom Siddhartha seems to have some level of admiration. Later, after leaving Kamala and Kamaswami , he meets the ferryman once again. The Spirit Character: Vasudeva Vasudeva has spent many years learning from the river. He has learned many important life lessons from his time alone on the river. Siddhartha is very intelligent, but Vasudeva is very wise. "I only know how to listen, to be devout; otherwise, I have learned nothing." After leaving Kamala and coming to river, Siddhartha wants to drown himself in it. Before he is able to complete the task, he hears the river speak to him and give him peace. It is the first of many lessons Siddhartha learns from the river while staying with Vasudeva. Later, he learns about the nature of time and eternity from the river. When he explains it to Vasudeva, the old ferryman l...

(Note: This post was originally written in June 2013) As I was giving the "Brains, Brawn & Bravado" workshop to the Parker Writers Group (thanks for having me, PWG!) this past weekend, I realized something. Siddhartha's transformation mirrors that of Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol . Both start their transformation journey with a mind character, then encounter a body character, and finally encounter a spirit character. Where Scrooge's transformation takes an entire night, however, Siddhartha's takes a lifetime. Body Character I: Kamala After shedding the burden of intellectualism, Siddhartha's eyes are opened to a whole new way of seeing the world. All this, colored and in a thousand forms, had always been there...but in previous times, all this had been nothing to Siddhartha but a fleeting and illusive veil before his eyes... For the first time in his life, Siddhartha allowed himself to experience the beauty of the world, and...

Siddhartha is the story of a man's spiritual journey to enlightenment and the trials and tribulations he encounters along the way. Born the son of a Brahmin, Siddhartha begins his life studying the scriptures and quickly becomes a highly esteemed holy man. Intellectual pursuits, however, do not lead him to enlightenment, so he decides to live in the ways of the world. This only takes him farther from the enlightenment he seeks. Finally, he discovers peace and accepts all that has happened to him as steps along that path.  In this series of posts, I will show the characters who define each of the stages through which Siddhartha must pass to achieve his enlightenment, starting with the mind character. The Mind Character: Govinda Siddhartha, as a young Brahmin, stands apart from his peers. He is far and above the most learned of the holy men; he knows all the scriptures and can perform all the sacrifices. ...above all, he loved his intellect, his fine ardent th...

A friend recently posted on Facebook that she planned to add some Faulkner to her reading list for the coming year. That inspired me to pull down my copy of "The Unvanquished." As I read, I was reminded of the universality of the "brains, brawn, and bravado" concepts. In these posts, I do not try to explain the plot of the story or give a review of the book or the film. I am only trying to pass on enough information from the story to illustrate the mind, body, and spirit characters and concepts. I try to make the post relatively brief and therefore encourage you to read the book for yourself to discover all I haven't included.  The Body Character: Ringo Ringo is a young slave boy who is more of an adopted son than a slave. After the fall of Vicksburg, the Sartoris family must leave their land, taking their valuables and their slaves with them. They stop in town and receive a gift of rose clippings, which Ringo must tend to along the journey....

In C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe , we see mind, body and spirit clearly in the characters of Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie. Peter Pevensie is a 4th character who is transformed through his interactions with his siblings. This transformation model is common , and especially so in fantasy fiction. At the beginning of the story, Peter just wants to be a leader within his family and doesn't want to have any part of Narnia's struggles. By the end of the story, he is crowned High King of Narnia, Peter, the Magnificent. The Body Character: Edmund Pevensie Edmund cares only about himself. This is illustrated in the story through his obsession with Turkish Delight. He accepts the treat from the White Witch, the personification of evil in the story. He even begins to ignore her as he "...thought only of trying to shovel down as much Turkish Delight as he could, and the more he ate, the more he wanted to eat." The White Witch prom...

I recently stretched the idea of mind, body, and spirit characters into mind, body, and spirit societies . Now I am going to take the idea of mind, body, and spirit symbolism one step further. I have already discussed mind, body, and spirit characters in the Harry Potter series. In this post, I am going to take a deeper look at Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - specifically, the three tasks in the Triwizard Tournament. The Body Task: The Dragons The purpose of this task was to test the champions' strength and agility. Harry completed the task in the least amount of time by relying solely on his athletic ability when it comes to flying. Cedric Diggory tried a bit of deception by turning a rock into a dog, but he ended up relying on his agility when his dragon's attention was drawn away from the dog and back to Cedric. Fleur Delacour and Victor Krum tried attacking their dragons directly, evidently trying to put them out of commission so they could easily s...

Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is the protagonist in Jim Butcher's 'Dresden Files' series. Mind, body, and spirit abound in this series. First, there are three societies - The Never Never (faerie world), The Down Below (demon world), and The Mundane (human world). I have not read enough of the series to place these concretely, but my initial impression is they are the spirit, mind, and body societies, respectively. Harry Dresden is a wizard, and his magic is deeply rooted in mind, body, and spirit concepts. His potions for example contain eight parts. The first is a liquid that acts to bind all the other components together. Five ingredients represent the five senses (the body). One ingredient represents the mind, and the final ingredient represents the spirit. Spells also have a mind, body and spirit component. And, as usual, there are three primary characters. I have only read the first two books in the series, and as I've shown before, things c...

Spoiler Alert: I will be analyzing Veronica Roth’s Divergent in this post, and I may include spoiler information. If you have not read the book, please read it first – it’s worth the time. Tris, the protagonist in Divergent , grew up in Abnegation , chose Dauntless as her new faction, but she also tested high in Erudite, one of the two 'mind' factions in her society. The Mind Society (I): The Erudite Faction Erudite emphasizes logic and knowledge. Their founders believed ignorance caused their former society's downfall. They are the teachers and researchers in the grand society. They develop all the testing used to help people decide which factions to join. Unfortunately, their reliance on logic leads to a predictable conclusion. (SPOILER) As in movies like ' I, Robot ,' the only 'logical' means to save mankind is to subjugate them under the oppressive rule of the mind society. They develop a new method of mind control to use Dauntless as ...

Spoiler Alert: I will be analyzing Veronica Roth’s Divergent in this post, and I may include spoiler information. If you have not read the book, please read it first – it’s worth the time. Tris, the protagonist in the story, chooses Dauntless , one of the body factions, but she is born into Abnegation, a spirit faction. One of the themes is Tris's discovery that being dauntless and being selfless are nearly one in the same, and that Dauntless was the correct choice for her because of her Abnegation origin.  The Spirit Society (I): The Abnegation Faction The founders of Abnegation believed selfishness and self-gratification led to the downfall of their society, so they dedicated their lives to self-denial. Abnegation was considered incorruptible at its founding, so its members were chosen as the leaders for the entire society. No one in Abnegation would ever be susceptible to bribery or influence. They place themselves below all others - even the Factionless. S...

Spoiler Alert: I will be analyzing Veronica Roth’s ‘Divergent’ in this post, and I may include spoiler information. If you have not read the book, please read it first – it’s worth the time. Divergent is the first book in a YA trilogy by Veronica Roth that is a masterful work of mind, body, and spirit layering. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic Chicago, where the society is divided into six population groups. Any time there are a multiple of three of anything, I get curious. People in this society choose which of five factions the wish to join when they turn sixteen years old, based on their personalities. If they ‘flunk out’ of their chosen faction, they end up in the sixth population group – the ‘Factionless.’ The main character in the book is special because her personality is not isolated to one faction or another. She is called ‘divergent’ because she tests high in three personality traits related to three different factions: the Dauntless (body), the Erud...

(Note: This post was originally written in January 2013) I am back from the holidays and will try to get back onto my regular Tuesday/Friday posting schedule. I have a three-part post I will be doing covering Veronica Roth's Divergent , but before I get into it, I want to introduce the idea of mind, body, and spirit societies. I will use J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth as my example, here. The Hobbit is a well-known story, so I have no qualms including 'spoiler' information here. In a mind-body-spirit society, one race or class of individuals is defined by its overall characteristic traits. One race or class is known to all as the keepers of knowledge, for example. They bring reason to the corporate discussion and their input is often the source of conflict in a story. In SF or Fantasy, they are usually long-lived and maybe even immortal. In Middle Earth, the mind race is the race of elves, and in The Hobbit , it is the elves who advise against retaking the...

SPOILER ALERT: This post covers Jeffery Deaver's James Bond novel, 'Carte Blanche.' If you have not read the book, but intend to read it in the near future, please ignore today's post, as it may contain spoilers. Jeffery Deaver is a master at twists in his thrillers and I wouldn't want you to miss out. Jeffery Deaver is best known for his Lincoln Rhyme series of novels, the most notable being 'The Bone Collector,' which was made into a major motion picture starring Denzel Washington. In 2004, he won the Ian Fleming Silver Dagger award for 'Garden of Beasts,' a novel outside the Lincoln Rhyme series set in pre-WWII Germany. This award started a series of events that led to the Ian Fleming Foundation asking him to contribute to the James Bond series. The result was 'Carte Blanche.' This analysis only covers Deaver's book, and while the conclusions may hold true for other Bond novels, they may not. In 'Carte Blanche,...

In William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet,' Hamlet is the mind character, and Laertes is the body character. That leaves only the spirit character, Ophelia, to address.  The Spirit Character: Ophelia Ophelia comes on the scene as Laertes is preparing to leave for France. Before he leaves, Laertes gives Ophelia some advice about her relationship with Hamlet. He seems to think Hamlet is interested in more than friendship, but less than commitment. She tells him, of his advice: 'Tis in my memory locked And you yourself shall keep the key of it. Ophelia does not believe Laertes, though. She believes Hamlet truly loves her and says just what Laertes wants to hear. She acts like a giddy schoolgirl, as Polonius points out. O: He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders of his affection to me. P: Affection? Pooh! You speak like a green girl Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. Do you believe his tenders, as you call them? As with Laertes, Ophelia see...