A protagonist is a main character who desires something. The protagonist is who the story is mostly about. The protagonist is also the character who moves the story along.

Protagonist When finding the protagonist in the story, ask yourself: Who is the main character or who is the story mostly about? Is there a first person narrator? A first person narrator is a dead giveaway. If someone is relaying his own story, he is almost always the protagonist. Who has a desire and a challenge to that desire?

When identifying the protagonist, it isn’t enough to stop at “Who is the story mostly about?” You have to explore his or her desire and the challenge to that desire. Otherwise, it will be difficult to determine the antagonist.

An antagonist is a character or characters, event, or force (social, political, etc.) that stands in the way of the protagonist’s desire.

Antagonist When finding the antagonist in the story, ask yourself: Who or what is causing the conflict? Who or what is in the way of the protagonist’s desire? Who or what must the protagonist confront and defy for victory?

To determine the antagonist, think about the conflict in the story.

There are several universal types of conflict that show up again and again in stories that can be helpful when trying to determine the antagonist:  Man vs. Man  Man vs. Self  Man vs. Nature  Man vs. Society

Consider the conflict types to try to determine the root conflict. There can be more than one antagonist in a story. Either multiple characters are preventing the protagonist from achieving the same desire, or the protagonist has more than one desire and each antagonist is a barrier to achieving a different desire.

The challenge as you read more complex texts is not necessarily to choose the right answers to the questions: Who is the protagonist? and Who is the antagonist? Rather, the challenge is to choose the best answers as you interpret text and to support your interpretations with evidence.