<p>On a scholarship essay I’m looking at, one of the topics is “Describe a character in a work of fiction with whom most you closely idenitify or would most like to be like…” Is work of fiction exclusive to books? I can think of a character that would fit that prompt perfectly for me but from a TV show, not a book. At the time, I don’t want to shoot myself in the foot by not following the prompt.</p>
<p>I am sure that it can be any work of fiction you want. The essay sould be about you anyway.</p>
<p>Wolfpiper:
A character in a work of fiction can be a character in a book, a short story, a TV series, a film, etc… that is, not a real person.<br>
The important thing to bear in mind is that you want the adcom to focus on you, not the character. Therefore, in order to avoid taking up precious space with exposition, you should choose a character that should be fairly familiar to an adcom. You can easily make references to Holden Caufield, Blanche Dubois, David Copperfield, the Kurtz character in Heart of Darkness, etc… If you choose a character from a less well-known piece of fiction or movie or TV series, you will have to make choices between describing the character and possibly the plotline and drawing parallels with yourself. So choose carefully.</p>
<p>The problem I would have with referring to a fictional <em>TV</em> character is that it might make you appear shallow and unread. Yes, I’m an unrecalcitrant snob.</p>
<p>I thought the same thing, dmd. And the real point is, not that you or I might be a snob, but that the adcom might. So it’s risky.</p>
<p>The popular thought id that kids watch too much TV, so I would not fdeal with a character from TV. Too risky! I concur.</p>
<p>A TV show qualfies as a work of fiction. Heck, some news programs qualify as works of fiction these days.</p>
<p>But whether it’s wise to choose a TV character, I dunno. I think it’s also a danger to be pretentious in choosing a character…neither Achilles nor Holden Caufield would I write upon.</p>
<p>As long as you can write about a character and passionately apply it to yourself, why not write about a TV character? What character are you considering (please don’t say Bart Simpson)?</p>
<p>Elle, I didn’t ask because I was afraid it <em>was</em> Bart Simpson.
We watch vanishingly little TV but just what I see while changing VHS tapes or waiting for news/sports curls my toes with its dumbness.</p>
<p>Actually, I think that Wolfpiper is interested in Joan of Arcadia. I don’t know how many adcoms know about that series, let alone the character. I am not putting down TV series or characters, including Bart Simpson. Many adcoms are young and have grown up with these series. But the issue is balancing description of the character and series and discussions of one’s interests, experiences, and personalities.</p>
<p>I think anyone who has watched TV knows at the very least that Joan of Arcadia talks to God. As an adcom, I’d be interested to read how the applicant would discuss this–an interest? an experience? part of your personality?</p>
<p>How about a play or a poem? That would show that your are thinking out of the box, when most kids would do a novel.</p>
<p>I think a character from a play or poem would be an excellent “outside the box” kind of response. The truest answer is that anything <em>can</em> work, some things are just harder and more cliche-prone, etc., than others. As Marie Antoinette observed, execution is everything.</p>
<p>Wolfpiper–just remember what nngmm said on another thread about essay topics:</p>
<p>“The topic is just a tool you will be using to show what kind of person you are.”</p>
<p>Just keep that in mind as you pick your character–he, she, it will be a vehicle by which you can show the adcom something about YOU.</p>