Assignment #3

Assignment:Write a detailed list about your antagonist. (For help with this, remember the lesson about the Protagonist. If you are using a character as the conflict). Write a paragraph detailing the conflict against the protagonist. Give details - don't just say "The antagonist tries to stop the protagonist in many ways." Tell what ways- is it just the antagonist or does weather/nature or other things come into play also? Save this for future lessons.


In order to explain the multifaceted antagonist in "Assignment #1 " , I will first explain the protagonist's need, in order to reveal the different causes of tension. After his need and the relationship of that need to the antagonist are explained, I will proceed to extract different points of tension within "Assignment #1 " , while also mentioning why they are points of tension.

The protagonist is Roberto; his need is for his life not to alter drastically since he likes his normal life of consistency. Having a protagonist, in this way, an antagonist can produce tension through many subtle disturbances of normalcy that might not seem significant, which is what I did to the protagonist. So, there are many different causes of minute tension in Roberto's life that seem like nothing and then there is the horrific tension of his daughter (Jess) killing herself, bring him over the edge into a world of drugs. The order of these minute tensions is not as important as the need for the tension to build; however, I will be ordering the tensions as they happen chronologically in order to locate them more efficiently (all of the points of tension are in bold with their explanation underneath it).

Karen was surprised to see her husband's car in the garage when she arrived home.

The first line of the story starts the tension of the story by having something that doesn't usually happen. "Karen was surprised" is saying basically saying that this is not normal for the typical day. However, this tension isn't on Karen but on her husband since it is his care that is home early and not hers. So, she's pointing out that her husband would be experiencing the tension and not her.

"I didn't expect you home this early,"

This line reinforces the first line in that it's reflecting her husband's day as not being normal. Also, this makes her day a little bit different which also changes her actions towards her husband.

"Well, the Captain told me to leave...something about too many hours for the week."

This dialogue line is simple yet complex. Most people know how many hours they work in a week especially in regards to getting paid overtime. So, this statement is saying that he likes getting overtime seeing that he feels that working more hours is not a problem. Also, it shows that he doesn't like being sent home from work. There are multiple reasons for this: he likes his job, he likes his routine, and he likes getting paid overtime. In other words being home too early is a problem for him.

"Well it is Friday no reason to break tradition."

Robert explains in this dialogue line that he likes things to not vary. This is reinforced by his wife in the next dialogue line below.

"Jess could you call for a pizza, your dad doesn't want to break tradition."

This is said by Karen in a joking manor but it also annoys him a little bit because it pokes fun at his main believes of keeping everything normal as usual.

"...you should have the address already."

In a writing of subtle tension like this one, I feel a need to reinforce what you are trying to destroy. So, this is why I make minute points to reinforce that some of the things that they do are typical and repetitive. With this line I'm also pointing out the Jess's distain to the usual actions of the day in the way she orders the pizza.

"No not really, crime never takes a break...I had too many hours for the week."

This is saying how the hours of the day he was at work were the same but he couldn't stay there because he had too many hours. This gets back to how he wants to be at work for the full time because he needs to stop criminals. Also, in this you get a little sense that his wife wasn't listening to him or that he is not happy that he got this question asked twice when it was only suppose to get asked once.

The dramatic dinner fight between the mother and the daughter at the dinner table.

Robert loves his wife and his daughter very much and dislikes when they fight like this. He rather it be nice and quiet. Also, this sets up the tragic events that will happen after his daughter commits suicide. The hardest thing for Robert to do is to not be there to protect his family and to leave them is one of his biggest self defeats.

"Yeah, I'm fine dad."
"Ok... you seem to look worried about something."
"Well...I had a dream last night and it scared me a bit...but it was just a dream."
"Yeah, nothing to worry about sweetheart your dad is here to protect ya."
"I know you are."

This tension is also showing his care for his daughter as well as how he takes pride in caring for his daughter.

His soul died at first sight as he ran into Jess's room to hold his lifeless daughter.

Not being able to stop this horrific tragedy breaks down Robert's whole life's worth and dismantles who he is.

He plunged the needle into his own veins and told his partner to take him home.

This is another show of defeat and how he can't deal with all the tension that has happened in his life. The drug represents his ultimate defeat because it is illegal and his whole life was based around bring these types of people to justice.

I'm leaving because I failed. I love you and will always love you. You were always stronger than me. I love you.

This shows the struggle of him not being able to face his wife after he has failed, in his mind, from preventing his daughter's suicide.

All of these little disruptions of Robert's typical day were small little tensions to trigger to the reader that something wrong will happen. Then the suicide of his daughter lead to the destruction of Robert's self worth striping him down to a life of drugs. These actions all act on Robert as a multifaceted antagonist to bring him from who he is to who he would never think to be.