32 Once again, Sheila was a destructive child. According to Murphy’s theory
of characterization 161-173, Sheila’s character was seen by conversations of other, other’s comment, and the personal descriptions of the author. Here,
Sheila’s character was seen by the conversation between Mrs. Barthuly and Torey. The description of Sheila’s character also came from Mr. Collins’
comment about Sheila’s character. Lastly, Sheila’s character was described from the author’s personal description.
5. Smart
Although Sheila’s behavior was bad, Sheila was just a little girl that did not know how to be kind to other people. Sheila was a normal child. Sheila was
not categorized as a “crazy” child. Deep inside Sheila’s character, she was a very brilliant girl.
From watching her, it was apparent that she did not suffer from the crippling, unexplainable disturbances such as Max and Susannah
displayed. Instead, she was in surprisingly good control of her behavior, more so that most of the children coming into my class. Behind those
hate-filled eyes I saw a perceptive and most likely intelligent little girl. 29.
One day, Torey asked Sheila to do math. Sheila was able to do it without any trouble. “I could not tell if she actually knew the answers or was solving them
as she went along. Yet she clearly understood the mechanics behind adding.” 69. Torey felt that she had to know the intelligence level of Sheila. She gave
Sheila an IQ test that she borrowed from the school psychologist. Torey found that Sheila was a kind of genius.
33 Come here, hon. I want you to do something with me.” I beckoned to her.
… I had borrowed a test from the school psychologist called a Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test or more affectionately the PPVT. …
I had stopped making comments some time back. I had suspected she was above average in intelligence, maybe even bright, but she had long since
passed my expectations. 78
Torey asked a school psychologist to test Sheila’s IQ. Torey was curious about Sheila’s intelligence. Allan was surprised knowing that Sheila was brilliant.
“Allan, the school psychologist, gave Sheila an IQ and reading test. The IQ test Sheila topped out, earning the highest possible score. Allan was astonished,
coming out of his little room shaking his head.” 96 Sheila’s IQ score was high. She was not a crazy child as her father labeled
her. She was amazing and brilliant. She topped out the Stanford-Binet as she had done on the other test. An
extrapolated score gave her an IQ of 182. As I looked at it, I was affected in a mystical way;182 is beyond anyone’s comprehension. That is as far in
the direction of genius as an IQ of 18 is in the direction of retardation. 158
Sheila was a six-year-old girl, but she was able to do tasks on the higher level. “I had her working on third grade reading material and fourth grade math.
Both were considerably below her ability level.” 184 Sheila was a genius and a smart girl. She was able to do many tasks on a
higher level than average. Having an IQ of 182 was a very surprisingly fact opposite of her bad behavior. Sheila’s character is described through the personal
description of the author, and Allan’s opinion about Sheila’s IQ. These methods are proposed by Murphy from the nine methods of characterization 161-173.
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B. Sheila’s Aggressive Behavior
