Composite character

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Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. A composite character is a character in a work of fiction or non-fiction who is based on two or more real-life or fictional individuals.[1][page needed] Two or more fictional characters are often combined into a single composite character in the course of an adaptation of a work for a different medium, as in adapting a novel in the course of authoring a screenplay for a film. A composite character may be modeled on historical or biographical figures.

Examples from fiction

Examples from non-fiction

Use in journalism

Creating composite characters in journalism is considered a misrepresentation of facts and, without appropriate notice to the reader, unethical.[11] Some writers who are considered journalists or who describe them selves as journalists have on occasion used composite characters.

  • In 1944, The New Yorker ran a series of articles by Joseph Mitchell on New York's Fulton Fish Market that were presented as journalism. Only when the story was published four years later as the book Old Mr. Flood did Mitchell write, "Mr. Flood is not one man; combined in him are aspects of several old men who work or hang out in Fulton Fish Market, or who did in the past."[12] Mitchell assigned his composite character his own birthday and his own love for the Bible and certain authors.[13] In his introduction to Mr. Flood, Mitchell wrote, "I wanted these stories to be truthful rather than factual, but they are solidly based on facts."[14]
  • John Hersey is said to have created a composite character in a Life magazine story as did Alastair Reid for The New Yorker.[14]
  • Vivian Gornick in 2003 said that she used composite characters in some of her articles for the Village Voice.[15]

References

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