Studying a Character’s Motive

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

I bet you would finish your work quickly!

Ice cream is a good motivator! You might finish your work more quickly if there were a motivating factor, right?

Just like you finishing your chores quickly for the ice cream, the characters in books take action based on their motivations. A character’s motive is something he or she wants; it’s the goal.

Authors can tell you directly what a character’s motives are, but more likely, you will have to find clues in the text to reveal a character’s motives. You can find clues in the text by looking for the character’s traits, thoughts, words, feelings, and actions.

Finding and understanding the motive will give you a deeper understanding of the events in the story.

Here is a great MdGraw-Hill Education PreK-12 video to explain more about the motives of characters. After watching Introduction to Reading Skills: Character Analysis - 2, answer these questions:

• What were “Great Leader's” actions? What did he do for “Little Leader"?
• Why did “Great Leader” take those actions? What was his motive?

You could think of the “Great Leader” as a parent who is spoiling the child, but if you look deeper and see what they are thinking and their motive, you get a much better understanding of the characters and their story. You see that the “Great Leader” is trying to be a good parent, and thinks giving “Little Leader” everything he wants will make him happy.

Continue on to the Got It? section to practice looking for character motives.