Character Traits Research

Character Traits

Greed

In my synopsis I mentioned that my main character, Captain Cut-Throat is a treasure hungry pirate. So I think that the trait Greed is appropriate for this character. He stops at nothing throughout the story to get to his end goal of getting the treasure, even if it means putting himself and his crew in a lot of danger.

Greed is the desire or longing to possess the status or power of something more than they need. This means that the person believes that they need this item or thing but in reality they just have a desire to have it. Ref1

I think that children relate to this because they don't understand the difference between want and need. 

I found an interesting blog post from a parent trying to teach their children the difference between their wants and needs. Ref2

She uses columns and news paper clippings to teach her children to prioritise what they want.

I think this is very helpful but I think that books and animations can also be a helpful teaching tool for children to understand this as well. Also this could be done in the form of a story so the child doesn't necessarily realise they are learning a lesson.

In the book "Here Be Monsters" it shows Captain Cut-Throat boarding other ships in the attempt to steal gold and jewels, he comes across many set backs and short falls, costing him his crew. This should make the child reading or watching think about the costs of things they want and is it really worth it in the end. Captain Cut-Throat finds out the hard way that stealing and greed wasn't worth all that he went through and eventually looses his life because of it. I think that this was a very extreme way of proving this point but sometimes it takes a big shock ending to prove a point. This is mainly known as a worst case scenario ending. Ref3

References

1. Greed - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greed

2. Needs And Wants - http://www.icanteachmychild.com/teaching-children-the-difference-between-wants-and-needs/

3. Worst Case Scenario - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worst-case_scenario

Based on the book Here Be Monsters text © Jonathan Emmett 2013 and illustration © Poly Bernatene 2013, first published by Macmillan Children’s Books.