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odd_buttonsThe following is an excerpt from Part III of the book Making Shapely Fiction, by Jerome Stern. The first two parts are very much worth reading as well. The book is available in paperback.
Picaro
A picaro (from the Spanish pícaro, meaning rogue) is a lively rascal who gets into adventures that reveal the folly or vices of other, ostensibly more respectable characters. The anonymous Spanish work Lazarillo de Tormes (1554), the first picaresque novel, began an enthusiasm that spread to other countries, but the masterpiece of the form is Cervantes' Don Quixote.
Picaresque novels are usually composed of loosely connected escapades. Despite his ephemeral successes and brushes with disaster, the personality of the picaro usually remains unchanged. In some picaresque novels episodes are linked by the reappearance of previously introduced characters. The plot can be given direction if the picaro has a quest or goal.
The form is still popular. It's a way of placing an unconventional, somewhat disreputable hero at the center of your work, getting him involved in an interesting adventure, and then moving him on to another adventure. If you want your readers to identify with your character, you need to keep him engaging despite his vices. Keep his crimes petty, his success ephemeral, and his victims unattractive. The picaro can reveal the inadequacies of a society that is more corrupt than he is. Mark Twain's Huckleberry Fin, Jack Kerouac's On the Road, Saul Bellow's The Adventures of Augie March, and Tom Robbins's Even Cowgirls Get the Blues have all done variations on the picaresque. Women picaros are part of the tradition, from Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders to Erica Jong's dauntless Isadora Wing in Fear of Flying.
See Anti-hero, Character.
Picaro
A picaro (from the Spanish pícaro, meaning rogue) is a lively rascal who gets into adventures that reveal the folly or vices of other, ostensibly more respectable characters. The anonymous Spanish work Lazarillo de Tormes (1554), the first picaresque novel, began an enthusiasm that spread to other countries, but the masterpiece of the form is Cervantes' Don Quixote.
Picaresque novels are usually composed of loosely connected escapades. Despite his ephemeral successes and brushes with disaster, the personality of the picaro usually remains unchanged. In some picaresque novels episodes are linked by the reappearance of previously introduced characters. The plot can be given direction if the picaro has a quest or goal.
The form is still popular. It's a way of placing an unconventional, somewhat disreputable hero at the center of your work, getting him involved in an interesting adventure, and then moving him on to another adventure. If you want your readers to identify with your character, you need to keep him engaging despite his vices. Keep his crimes petty, his success ephemeral, and his victims unattractive. The picaro can reveal the inadequacies of a society that is more corrupt than he is. Mark Twain's Huckleberry Fin, Jack Kerouac's On the Road, Saul Bellow's The Adventures of Augie March, and Tom Robbins's Even Cowgirls Get the Blues have all done variations on the picaresque. Women picaros are part of the tradition, from Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders to Erica Jong's dauntless Isadora Wing in Fear of Flying.
See Anti-hero, Character.