Big Mouth and Ugly Girl-Characterization

Ursula Riggs
1) In the beginning of the story, Ursula was considered “changeable” with her moods. Her moods consisted of, Inky Black to Fiery Red which she went back and forth with. Inky Black was described as her “feet were concrete blocks, and where my eyes used to be, there were these broken little pieces of glass that hurt” (Oates 12). Inky Black was also mentioned whenever Ursula was sullen. Then, Fiery Red came up whenever she was in a good or passionate mood. “… I could feel the Fiery Red coming up. Here was my place! I love basketball” (Oates 13). This shows that Ursula also felt this livelier mood. However, her constant mood changes make her “changeable”.

2) Ursula demonstrated that she was caring by showing that she cared for Matt and Matt’s mother. “…but Ursula went instinctively and put her arms around the smaller woman” (Oates 227). As shown by the adverb, instinctively, Ursula has grown to be more caring towards other people without hesitation. “My voice got brighter and brighter... I was almost pleading now. This went on for five minutes, maybe… I was so scared, Ugly Girl seemed to have departed. It was just me, Ursula (Oates 151). This was when Matt tried to jump off the cliff and Ursula begging Matt to not do it. This also shows that Ursula clearly cares about Matt. Therefore, Ursula became caring towards the end of the story.

Matt Donaghy
1) Matt was humorous throughout the book by making jokes and also lightening up the mood. “ ‘But does this work? Is it scary, is it funny, does it move?’ Matt Donaghy has something of a reputation at Rocky River for being both brainy and a comic character…” (Oates 4). This states that Matt is considered a class clown and likes to be humorous. Ursula also described Matt as “ a ‘wit’—a ‘clown’—a ‘wise guy’…” (Oates 26). Therefore, Matt is considered to be amusing.

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