Civil War

Charles is the main character from “If It Comes Back”. He is a guy who hangs around a park. Charles is needy, dense, and obsessive. When he meets Amy, a crippled young woman in a wheelchair, these characteristics become more obvious.


Charles is needy because he is obsessed with trying to help Amy. This is his biggest fault. He shows that he wants to help Amy when he says, “ May I push you in your wheelchair.”   (P 9). Charles also shows he is needy by wanting Amy to not only to depend on him, but also to keep him company. However, after continuing to assist Amy after she tells him she can do it by herself, he scares her into moving away.


Charles is dense because he just doesn’t get the big picture.   Charles is dense when he doesn’t notice Amy’s discomfort on the boat. Charles also shows that he is dense by continuing to ask if he can push Amy after repeatedly being refused. ” He was completely oblivious to her discomfort,” is some evidence to support the point.  


Charles is obsessive because he will do whatever he wants just to show he is right. .   Obsessive and dense are similar, but not similar enough to be synonyms for each other. For example a dense person would not put a salt shaker up on the top shelf, so a handicapped person would probably need assistance to get it (pg. 10). This is obsessive because he wants Amy to be dependent on him in every way, and he will do anything to achieve that goal. Charles also likes to do the same thing over and over again, such as boating (pg. 10)


The paragraphs above have hopefully shown that Charles is needy, dense, and obsessive.   These characteristics are not good ones to have, and are probably the reason why Amy left Charles shortly after she met him. Charles should have seen that Amy liked him, but didn’t want Charles to wait on her hand and foot.