Literary Devices

Character Devices

Certain character devices relate the author’s identity to characters in a story.

Self-insertion is a literary technique that intentionally introduces the author as a character in the story.

An Author Surrogate is a character who expresses the author’s ideas, questions, personality, and morality nd 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 reader's questions and confusion. This technique is frequently used in detective fiction and science fiction.

Other character devices refer to a character's special traits.

Christ figure is an extended metaphor in which 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.