What to call a main character who changes names?
I'd like to write a story, in the third-person perspective, centering on a character who changes her name several times in the course of the story.
She uses her birth name for the first couple of chapters, then perform an "identity switcheroo" with another character, with the intention of using that new identity for the rest of her life. The two of them only meet twice afterwards. That new name would be used for about 2/3 of the story.
The switch would then be discovered and her old name used by some of the other characters and toward the end she would decide to create a new name for herself, with no intention of going back to the old ones.
There are also parts of the story where she uses aliases, but they are short-lived and won't be used by the narrator.
At first, I wanted to add a paragraph describing her getting mentally used to her new name when it changes, then use it in the narrative until it changes again.
On one hand, she absolutely intends to become a new person each time, and sees herself as a "Jane" then a "Dolores", etc, at different points of the story, but I don't know if it would be clear enough for the reader
Note : there are other closely related questions but I'm not sure if their answers apply to this case.
1) Revealing MC's name midway through a story
2) Character lying about her name
3) Character changes name but other call him by the old one
Question :
Would it be better for the narrator to use the MC's birth name for the whole story (especially since it makes a surprise comeback in the end) ?
Or should the narrator adapt to the changes ?
Is there a better option, like giving her a nickname early on and using it through the story ?
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There are many ways you can tackle this question. Some considerations would be how close your narration is to the MC, how the MC thinks of themselves, and how you want the reader to think of her. Let me give you some examples of how different authors treated the question, and you can see which approach fits your story best.
One famous example of the MC changing names and identities is Les Misérables. The narration leaves Jean Valjean in Digne. Some time later, we are introduced to Monsieur Madeleine, the mayor of Montreuil-sur-Mer. I don't know if readers in Hugo's time knew in advance that Monsieur Madeleine was Jean Valjean, or if they had to figure it out. Modern readers certainly do know in advance. Hugo keeps on calling Valjean 'Madeleine', and leave it to the audience to figure it out, right until Valjean's identity is officially revealed. The effect produced is quite interesting: even knowing who Madeleine is, we are allowed to see him from outside, as it were - experience how he is seen at this point of the story by the people around him. It is through this tool that we learn how much he has changed. Even to himself, he is no longer Jean Valjean - it is the name of his past self, of himself-the-criminal; he is no longer that man. But of course his past identity catches up with him, and he must carry it.
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In Diana Wynne Jones's book Dogsbody, Sirius (the star) is transformed into a dog, and his new human owners call him Leo. The narration alternates between 'Sirius' and 'Leo', depending on the focus of each scene.
"Oh, I hope not!" Kathleen said, knowing how much Leo ate already. Sirius realised she was worries and wagged his tail consolingly outside his basket. (D.W. Jones, Dogsbody, chapter 2)
Sirius, of course, thinks of himself as 'Sirius', and the girl, of course, thinks of him as 'Leo'. So you get both names in the narration.
In David Eddings's Belgariad, the main character Garion earns the prefix 'Bel-', signifying he is a sorcerer. Other characters start calling him 'Belgarion', but he calls himself 'Garion', and so does the narration. The narration is close to the MC, so it follows the way he thinks of himself, and he thinks of himself humbly - he's not used to the whole 'sorcerer' thing yet.
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In Terry Pratchett's Reaper Man, Death gets fired, and for a while finds a new identity as Bill Door. The narration switches to calling him Bill Door the moment he gets the new name:
I AM TIRED AND IT WON'T STOP.
Bill Door clutched at his skull.
ALSO SPIGOT GAVE ME A HUMOROUS APPLE JUICE FERMENTED DRINK BECAUSE OF THE HEAT AND NOW I FEEL ILL.But of course we can never forget who Bill Door is: he talks in ALL CAPS.
Personally, I feel that changing the MC's name in the narration many times might be a bit confusing to the reader. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, if you think this is what suits your story best. It does mean you should maybe give some extra thought to how to keep the reader not confused.
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One of my characters, a kind of spy, goes by several names in the course of her story. The narrator always refers to her by her real name. I make sure she introduces herself by whatever cover name she is using, and she never fails to answer to it. In about 95% of scenes, everybody is calling her by her cover name.
This is true even in an intimate setting with a fellow spy that knows her real name, because no matter how private you think you are, you never know when you might be overheard, recorded, or bugged. So they fool around but neither of them ever breaks character.
The narrator never calls her anything but her real name, a constant reminder to the reader she is not the character she is playing. That can work for you too. It sounds like part of your story is this search for self, and that kind of reminder would subtly reinforce that she really hasn't found herself, and perhaps never does.
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I don't think the narrator adapting to the name change would be a problem per se. However, what needs to be clear to the reader is which character you are referring to.
So, suppose that we have a scene where Jane and Dolores meet and agree to switch names. As a reader, if you then tell me that «Jane left the building and returned home», I am left wondering which Jane did it. It would be much better that you clarified that the new Jane left the building. Or even the old Jane, that was now called Dolores, left the building...
This way, we disambiguate it for now, but will need to clarify who is when we the narrator only talks about Jane.
I would then eg. start the next chapter with «Jane woke up, looked at herself in the mirror and said "Hello Dolores" [or "Hello Jane"]. She was still trying to get used to that name…» which is quite similar to the idea you had.
Then, when the two characters meet another time, you should disambiguate again. Just think on how confusing it may be having the narrator refer to the characters in one way, they themselves in another or even differing between them (eg. the old Dolores may think in herself as Jane now, but also think in the new Dolores as Jane, as that's how she met her). Even if there was only one valid interpretation, the reader shouldn't need to stop reading to test possibilities and figure out who-is-who (not to mention that these situations are likely to confuse the writer, too!).
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39754. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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