Beauty in Simplicity

As a writer of fiction, I was taught that my characters should be round. They should be complicated and developed. And this makes sense. As readers, we want to follow characters who learn and grow in the time we spend with them. We want them to be presented with struggles and challenges and we want to see if these challenges can be overcome by our protagonist(s). Simple characters can be predictable. Who wants to read a story they can predict the end to?

But what about those flat, minor characters? Well, they have a place in stories, too. First of all, they are necessary to some story arcs. Not every character can be fleshed out, especially in a shorter piece of work. Some characters have to be flat. If every charter in fiction came complete with backstory and complications, all their problems would take away from the journey of the main characters. For example, what do we know about the waiter in Hemingway's "Hills like White Elephants?" In this short, short story that focuses intently on the American couple, do we really need to know the waiter's desires and backstory? Of course not. Sometimes a waiter is just a waiter.

But flat characters can be awesome. Take the Duke and Dauphin from Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." These guys are pretty one-note characters. They come into Huck's story, louse things up for our lead, try to make a few bucks, and leave (well, more like run out of town) without learning a lesson. And we are left to imagine what other adventures these two might have and what other scams they might pull.

And they are despicable people, but darn it, they're a lot of fun too. Who doesn't love the Royal Nonesuch?

Or how about the Lummi Indian in Sherman Alexie's "War Dances"? We don't get his backstory or motivations. He's just a guy in a hospital waiting for his sister to give birth. But he delivers my favorite line in all of Sherman's works. After the protagonist, a Spokane Indian, asks the Lummi if he has a blanket, the Lummi asks him if the Spokane assumed he would have a blanket simply because he is Native American. "You're stereotyping your own damn people," the Lummi says, and then immediately follows with, "But damn if we don't have a room full of Pendleton blankets."

All three of these characters are basically flat. They have no development, but they are all essential to the stories in which we find them. The Duke and Dauphin sell Jim into slavery. And the Lummi provides our protagonist with the much coveted blanket.

Flat characters are necessary, and can be fun and interesting in capable hands. They balance the protagonists. For every Jean Valjean whose epic journey is full of struggles and heartbreak there is a villainous, slimy M. Thénardier with a get-rich-quick mentality. The Thénardiers in literature balance out the Valjeans. And their simplicity can be just a entertaining as the complexities of our heroes.