【正文】 lunat ic has cheated t he r eader by avoiding t he pr oblem of mot ive.) And generaly, t he act ion it self is humanly signif icant and it ends usualy in a shif t in or clar if icat ion of hum an values, as displayed in J ohn Updike’s “A amp。 char act er。 P, ” and t he m otivat ion of a char acter in a st or y—one of t he answer s t o t he quest ion “why”—is of f undam ent al im port ance. I. What is Char acter ? Closely r elat ed wit h t he stor y is t he char act er. Henr y J ames said, “What is character but the det er minat ion of incident ? What is incident but t he ilust r at ion of character ?” ( The Art of Fiction”) When we read a novel, we read about our f ellow beings, and that is one of the m otives in reading at al. The “fellow beings” in t he novel is t er m ed char act er s. By “fellow beings” is meant not only “human beings” but also “other beings,” such as animals. Geor ge Or well uses anim als t o r epresent hum an beings in his novel Anim al Far m . Lewis Car r ol cr eat es m any lovely anim als in his Alice’ s Adventures in Wonderland t hat appeal t o bot h childr en and adult s. Or well does not int end t o convince t he r eader t hat animals can speak hum an language or t hat he is a translator between anim als and hum ans. No sensible reader, after reading Orwell’ s Animal Far m , would go t o t he pigst y t o look f or a t alking boar. This pr oves t he agr eed on fict ionalit y of character s in novels. So br oadly, a character is an invent ed personalit y t o r esemble but never t o equal a r eal per son in lif e. I t is not dif f icult t o see t hat character s in novels r esemble people in r eal if e in m any ways. They have nam es used in t he same way our s are used, t hey have hat red and love, and t hey have desir es and f ears. Above al, t hey act he way we act or t he way we can under st and (like or dislike) . But we m ust bear in m ind t hat t he char acters ar e not r eal per sons, but m er ely invent ions, however ingenious. Compare the physical if e and spiritual if e of the characters and ours. We have to answer the nature’ s cal s ever al t im es a day, but char act er s seldom do t his, even in t he m ost r ealist ic or nat uralist ic novels. We have t o live our lif e hour by hour and day by day, but character s never do t his. They ch。 t heme。 how wr it ers, t hr ough t heir creat ive im puls es, convey t o us t heir insight s int o hum an dest iny and human lif e。 point of view。I nt r oduct ion I . Why do we have such course? English lit er atur e is one of t he pulsor y and most im por tant cour ses. However , t he English lit er atur e cour ses of fer ed ar e m er ely t aught at he level of lear ning general inf or mat ion and developing lit er al understanding. Adm it tedly, such courses help t hem/you a lot in t heir /your acquisit ion of t he English language. But he f unct ion of English lit er atur e r eaches f ar beyond t hat . I n r eading English lit er at ure, a student should have t he power t o discern how hum an beings t r anslat e t heir exper ience int o ar t istic expr ession and r epr esent at ion。 char act er。 P, ” and t he m otivat ion of a char acter in a st or y—one of t he answer s t o t he quest ion “why”—is of f undam ent al im port ance. I. What is Char acter ? Closely r elat ed wit h t he stor y is t he char act er. Henr y J ames said, “What is character but the det er minat ion of incident ? What is incident but t he ilust r at ion of character ?” ( The Art of Fiction”) When we read a novel, we read about our f ellow beings, and that is one of t he m ot ives in r eading at al. The “fellow beings” in t he novel is t er m ed char act er s. By “fellow beings” is meant not only “human beings” but also “other beings,” such as animals. Geor ge Or well uses anim als t o r epresent hum an beings in his novel Anim al Far m . Lewis Car r ol cr eat es m any lovely anim als in his Alice’ s Adventures in Wonderland t hat appeal t o bot h childr en and adult s. Or well does not int end t o convince t he r eader t hat animals can speak hum an language or t hat he is a t r anslat or bet ween anim als and hum ans. No sensible reader, after reading Orwell’ s Animal Far m , would go t o t he pigst y t o look f or a t alking boar. This pr oves t he agr eed on fict ionalit y of character s in novels. So br oadly, a character is an invent ed personalit y t o r esemble but never t o equal a r eal per son in lif e. I t is not dif f icult t o see t hat character s in novels r esemble people in r eal if e in m any ways. They have nam es used in t he same way our s are used, t hey have hat red and love, and t hey have desir es and f ears. Above al, t hey act he way we act or t he way we can under st and (like or dislike) . But we m ust bear in m ind t hat t he char acters ar e not r eal per sons, but m er ely invent ions, however ingenious. Compare t he physical if e and spir it ual if e of t he char act ers and our s. We have to answer the nature’ s cal several tim es a day, but characters seldom do this, even in the m ost realistic or naturalist ic novels. We have t o live our lif e hour by hour and day by day, but character s never do t his. They chose t o live som e t im e m or e f uly t han other s, and are able t o skip over periods on t en m ont hs or t went y ear s wit hout seeming weir d, a f eat which we c an never atempt. I n our lif e, our minds are a gray m ater even to scientists. We can not know what is going on in other’s m ind. But in novels, t he m inds of the character s are open or can be made open t o t he r eader if t he novelist so chooses. The r eader does not only see t heir clot hes, but also see t heir minds. One character may be enemy t o other characters, but he is f r iend t o t he r eader, before whom he can think aloud, to borrow