Literary Devices

Character Devices

Certain character devices refer to the identity of the author related to characters in a story.

Self-insertion is a literary technique used to intentionally introduce the author into the story as a character.

An Author Surrogate is a character who expresses the ideas, questions, personality and morality of the author and acts as the author's spokesman.

Mary Sue or Gary Stu is a character who can be seen as an idealized self-insertion by the author. The introduction of a Mary Sue or Gary Stu is generally unintentional. An Audience surrogate is a character who expresses the questions and confusion of the reader. This technique is frequently used in detective fiction and science fiction.

Other character devices refer to special traits of a character.

Christ figure is an extended metaphor where a character is strongly associated with the religious figure of Jesus Christ. Often, the Christ figure is represented as conspicuously moral, and may sacrifice himself. Sometimes, such a character is then resurrected.