Songs for a Teenage Nomad: Lesson on Character Motives/Motivation, Internal vs. External Conflict & Point of View

Character Motives/Motivation in Literature

“We never fully understand other people’s motivations in real life,” says Orson Scott Card. “In fiction, however, we can help our readers understand our characters’ motivations with clarity, sometimes even certainty. This is one of the reasons why people read fiction—to come to some understanding of why other people act the way they do.”

Definition of Character Motivation: 

Reason or reasons behind a character's action; what induces a character to do what he does; motives. In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, love motivates the title characters. In Shakespeare's Macbeth, ambition (lust for power) motivates the title character and his wife to murder the king. 

Worksheets on Character Motivation

Conflict: Internal vs. External

Definition of Conflict

A struggle between opposing forces that causes the action of the story.

1. External conflicts have outside action such as man against man, man against nature, man against fate.
2. Internal conflicts occur inside the character's mind, such as man against himself or man against society.

Example: Joe the bank robber is having an external conflict with his partner Dave who wants more money while also having an internal conflict with himself about having to kill his lifelong friend Dave for his greed.

Point of View

Definition of Point of View

Point of View means that the story is told through the eyes and mouth of a certain person; the story can change considerably, depending on who is telling it.