Blog: Characterizaton

Characterization is "the processes of creating a character, using words, actions, thoughts and appearance. The key to creating a realistic character is adding motivation. By allowing a character to develop strong want or needs allows his to gain a greater depth and realism". And thus, the character and movie I will be focusing on is the cult hit Napoleon Dynamite.

Napoleon Dynamite is a highshooler who lives with his grandma and his older brother Kip.Kip  sits "chatting with babes" on internet chatrooms all day, while planning to be a cage fighter. Napoleon daydreams his way through school, drawing ligers (lions and tigers breeded) and his medival fantasies, while reluctantly dealing with the assorted bullies who frequently torment him. To make himself seem more interesting, he continuously makes up lies about him going to Alaska and fighting Wolverines. His uncle attempts to use get rich quick schemes to, well, get rich, whilst his grandma is in the hospital after crashing a dirtbike on the sand dune with her secretive boyfriend,  breaking her coccyx.

Napoleon wears cheesy graphic tees and and sweatpants, also donning his signature moon boots, revealing his "dont-care" attitude. His glasses are huge and thick, and he has generic nerd hair. When he goes to the dance, he picks out a outdated, brown suit from the second hand store as well as a dance VHS and a small ninja sword, which he promptly puts on his belt loop. He constantly squints and gets into slap fights with his older brother, as well as being picked on by bullies. He is annoyed but still loves most of his family  except for Uncle Rico, a failed football star, who uses him to distribute "Bust Must" female enhancers.

The scene I'm going to be focusing on is the scene where Uncle Rico buys a time machine on the interwebs of cyberspace. 
With Uncle Rico nowhere to be found, Kip lets Napoleon use the machine, which electrocutes him. His goal isn't really to travel back in time, rather it is to defy his uncle by using the machine (since his uncle bought it). Kip pretends not to know it wont work, devilishly smiling as Napoleon reels in pain. The only obstacle that Napoleon faces is "forgetting to put in the crystals", well and maybe not going back in time. We see that Napoleon is defiant, that Kip is a sneaky trickster, and we have empathy for the 
uncle. Thus, Napoleon is characterized as the outcast of the family, Uncle Rico, and Kip later going on to  run a "10 piece set" scheme in wihc they sell cheap Tupperware.