I'm almost afraid to post this, considering how combative this thread is... but:
If by combative you mean people express opposing opinions, which is what a forum is for I would think, aren't you now being combative yourself?
Does Theresa have any character development going on?
I understand your point about her not changing and I think it's a fine enough idea to have someone who stands by their morals no matter what, but something about her has to change to make her an interesting character.
In chapter one, Theresa is ten. She goes down the street to throw a baseball back and forth with her little friend Tommy Kearns. That's the extent of her sex life at age ten.
In chapter two she is a sixteen year old high school Senior. There is no reference to sex in chapter two, but later it will be revealed she only had one boyfriend in high school, a nice kid, a fun to be with kid, a geeky kid with red hair and glasses. He's the only high school boy who ever had the nerve to ask her out. They're obviously not a match, but they get each other circulating out there.
In chapter three Theresa begins college. She immediately starts dating Jack Koster, "the boy from New York City", but not long after Jack's long standing hometown girlfriend shows up on a surprise visit. Steve Hartley, who has had an eye for Theresa, seizes the opportunity and shows up at her dorm room. They hit it off immediately. "We were perfect for each other." They marry in June. She is eighteen.
Theresa's sexuality has certainly changed over the years. The text doesn't explicitly say that. It would be insulting. The reader should already be aware of it.
Another kind of change is increase in knowledge. Obviously Theresa knows a lot more at eighteen than she did at age ten in chapter one when she spoke in simple, short sentences, mostly monosyllables. The text doesn't explicitly say that. It would be insulting. The reader should be aware of it.
Another change in character is a change in morals, which is what is usually meant by the word character.
The are two kinds of change in morals.
One is change in kind. A person moves left or right, up or down, on the spectrum from good to bad. Theresa's morals don't change in kind. Why should they?
The other kind of change is in intensity, grounding, fervor, understanding, whatever you want to call it.
In chapter four government agents seize Theresa and take her out to sea for execution: Perhaps it was moving away from land for the last time, but for the moment Steve and my parents seemed in another world I had already left. There was nothing they could do for me. I turned to thoughts of my eternity.
When pushed to the brink someone can panic, or despair, or hope. I had always believed. Some people said they had doubts about God. I pitied them. How could they have doubts? Simple reasoning told me the universe could not be in the form it was without design. It might be a chaos, but the beautiful way it was ordered against a trillion to one odds of elements just happening to have exactly the properties needed to sustain life could only be somebody’s design. Besides that, people’s intellects could not be material alone or would not understand any concept presented to it. But most of all, the goodness of my mother, father, and Steve was not something that could exist in animals. God made them above nature.
I recited a prayer in my mind as best I could remember it. It was not a standard Church prayer but was fitting for the end.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie in
green pastures; he leadeth me to still waters. Though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Can you imagine a ten year old girl thinking and feeling this way?
Clearly Theresa has changed.
The execution fails and HAL's response is disastrous. Theresa agrees to try to get control of HAL. But this means she might acquire limitless power.
The world has never heard of her until two weeks ago and worries she will become a power-mad dictator. Prime Minister Blair appears at the House of Commons to answer questions. Theresa narrates, "When Blair walked into the House you could see from the eyes of the members they couldn't wait to have at him."
But the reader already knows Theresa very well, and knows she will not become a dictator. It's fascinating to watch the Prime Minister's lengthy defense of Theresa. which predicts what we already expect of Theresa. And we have 21 chapters to go.
No change in kind of Theresa's morals is needed to make Theresa interesting.
Originally Posted by popsprocket
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