Characterization - Mariam

Characterization - Mariam
Characterization refers to the way in which characters are portrayed and developed in a story. This includes the way that characters are drawn and decision they make.

Tangles develops several key characters across the memoir, however, Mariam’s story is the focal point of all character development.

Physical Description and Portrayal
Tangles is recounted over several decades, and Mariam’s character undergoes several physical changes as a result.

Long before the Alzheimer’s, Mariam is drawn with clean lines, proper hair, and focused facial expressions. Her words are clear and succinct, and her thoughts are thought-out and detailed. As a professor, and designer of a school board curriculum, Mariam’s behaviour & appearance is befitting of her character.

As the Alzheimer’s begins to develop, the numerous bouts of confusion and frustration begin to take shape in the way that Mariam composes herself. The first signs begin in Mariam’s hair. As the memoir progresses, her hair is more uneven. When in a bun, more stands hang loose, and when her hair is out, more curls spring about. Towards the end of the memoir, her facial expressions are uneven, and her behaviours grow more disconnected from reality. The Alzheimer’s takes hold of Mariam, and towards the end she is entirely unlike the Mariam most would recognize from the beginning of the memoir.

When Mariam loses her ability to remember names and later walk, her blissful ignorance changes her entirely, and she is no longer the person anyone would recognize.

Attitude and Personality
Mariam begins her story as a somewhat serious, well read, kind mannered individual who cares deeply for animals and tries to keep her family close. She had high hopes for her endeavors and is always willing to offer support for her kids when they need it.

The Alzheimer’s robs Mariam of her attitude well before it strikes her mobility and sense of reality. As Mariam becomes self-aware of her confusion and gaps in memory, she grows more aggressive towards the people closest to her. Mariam attacks those who call out her apparent symptoms, and wants to be left alone with her thoughts.

As the Alzheimer’s begins to take Mariam’s sense of reality, she becomes understandably depressed, and her aggression is replaced by continuous bouts of sadness and suicidal thoughts.

Mariam’s lighter side shows itself again as the Alzheimer’s removes her sense of reality. Mariam finds more enjoyment from animals and nature, similar to the beginning of the memoir. However, as her motor skills are lost to the disease, her blissful moments are replaced with uncontrolled outbursts and disconnected comments.

Dialogue and Thoughts
Mariam’s dialogue and desires are in line with her education and employment. She had plans for the school board, plans for improving the lives of her students, a passion for animals, and a deep seeded love for her family.

Mariam would take calls from her daughters at any time of night, she would write detailed letters regularly, she had a large study in her home with several books, and she was well read on several topics.

As the Alzheimer’s took root, Mariam’s thoughts become more disconnected from any long term planning or foresight. Her writing was more broken and less detailed when composing letters to her family, while the ideas on those letters became more elementary.

Towards the later stages of the disease, Mariam stopped eating healthy food and began eating more sugar. Mariam would grow a large garden each year and cook hearty dishes filled with vegetables, meanwhile never eating candy or sweets. Later, sugar was among the few things left that she could taste, and she would eat candies and pasta regularly. Her thoughts towards diet faded long before her loss of motor function of sense of reality.

Reactions of Others
Early on, Mariam was the person in the family whom many went to for support. Mariam had a strong sense of self and kind personality. She would be the person in the family who stepped in the middle when siblings were fighting, and offered words of wisdom when the world seemed to be crashing down.

As the Alzheimer’s began to develop, Mariam became the person in the family who needed the most support. Mariam would be aggressive to anyone that asked her questions about what was going on, and closed herself off from the world when the confusion was too much to bear.

Mariam’s family shifted their focus to her, but early on the reactions from the family were mixed. Rob felt this was a phase, Hannah had no patience for the behaviour, and Sarah was distant and mildly concerned.

Mariam’s family was most supportive of her when she was at her worst – emotionally. They were understanding of her disease, and didn’t take notice of her outbursts in many occasions.

As Mariam lost her sense of reality, the family’s reactions and tolerance grew thin. Mariam needed bathing and constant monitoring at all times, and the family was unable to accommodate her challenges with open arms. At this point, two nurses were alternated as care attendants, and the family largely used this time to ease their struggle.

Reactions to Mariam evolved into patronization, where friends and family would engage her with slight disregard for her opinion and reaction, like a child and adult interaction.

Eventually, the family would talk to Mariam as though speaking to someone inside her, rather than to who she was. The family would speak with the old Mariam - the Mariam they remember.

Actions/Incidents
Incidents make up the bulk of Mariam’s Alzheimer’s development. Early on, Mariam is very much like anyone in the story.

As the Alzheimer’s symptoms began, Mariam’s first incidents arose in her Elementary School role, where she was unable to calm younger children. Though these scenes didn’t suggest any Alzheimer’s, they were the early signs of high-level functions being degraded by the disease.

Later, small gaps began to form in her short term memory, such as the scene at the baggage carousel. Mariam slowly lost the ability to connect actions to outcomes, like opening a door to exit a vehicle.

As the Alzheimer’s became more advanced, the incidents did so as well. First Mariam would forget the names of famous leaders like Abraham Lincoln, later her daughter’s names, and soon her ability to walk and bathe herself. These incidents grew in significance until the moment she passed away.