forum Wondering how to tell a characters prejudice...

Started January 18, 2018 by @WheresMaldo

tune

I was going through all the files for creating a character and this popped up and I honestly have no idea how to answer it for any of my characters… If someone could clarify it for me that would be wonderful! Thank you!

Well a prejudice is kind of like a pre judgement about something or someone based on information that you have heard from others or past events that make you bias towards or against a certain group. For example, one of my characters has a prejudice against people high up on the government chain of command because she believes they are non-reliable. A prejudice can also be small like when you dislike people who your friends dislike just because your friend dislikes them.

I hope this helps

Usually something happens to a character to make them prejudiced/ biased against someone or something.
I.E One of my characters who's an alien was tortured in a lab with his 3 siblings and was also later on betrayed by a human, so now he's prejudiced against like 95% of humans, because of this event that happened. He is very suspicious of humans and if one posed a possible threat to his siblings he honestly would have no problems with offing that human thanks to his prejudices that humans are scum and are not to be trusted.

Ooooh okay, that makes so much more sense. I understand now. Thank you so much!

A prejudice also doesn't have to be rational. Some people are prejudiced against things for no reason, and thus their prejudice isn't based on any event in particular. One might show that is a story by using subtle changes to language, such as derogatory slang, or perhaps a change of expression/body language. You ideally don't want to ram the prejudice down the reader's throat and show it too blatantly, as most people aren't so vocal in their prejudices, however it does depend on the character, as one may well encounter a character who is extremely prejudiced. Best of luck!