Physical features

When we juxtapose contasting characters, we see each of them more clearly.

One source of character might be their physical features.

Photo of kid on subway sitting awkwardly next to blue monster gobbling cheetos

How many contrasting physical features can you see in this image? 'Subway doodle' by Ben Rubin (Source)

If we focus on the physical contrasts:

Physical contrasts: Black clothes vs blue skin. Matte vs glossy. Young vs old (?). Small vs big. Neat vs gross. Human vs creature. Clothes vs skin. Solid vs melty. Photo vs illustration.

If we went beyond physical contrasts into behaviour and emotion, we could highlight not eating vs gorging food; nervous vs excessively comfortable.

And if we want to take the analysis further:

Juxtaposition: Normal-looking kid vs weird monster. Weird monster vs everyday train life.
Resonances: Inappropriateness on several levels. The monster shouldn't be on the train because it's not real. And even if it were real, it shouldn't be so rude and gross!

Now let's shift to text.

Which physical features are highlighted in this snippet from The Graveyard Book?

Bod could not imagine hugging Silas, so he held out his hand and Silas bent over and gently shook it, engulfing Bod’s small, grubby hand with his huge, pale one. Then, lifting his black leather bag as if it were weightless, he walked down the path and out of the graveyard.

The Graveyard Book(2010)

The central contrast is created by juxtaposing hands:

Bod's hand: small, grubby.
Silas' hand: huge, pale.

Here are a couple of examples that apply this idea of physical juxtaposition to highlight individual qualities:

Jakob pulled the lever to release the net and a mountain of fish sluiced onto the deck with slippery thwack. Mikolaj gasped and pointed. There in the centre of the pile, lying among the thousands of fine silver herrings and sand-lances, was one bulky green tentacled beast.

Once we were both early for our shift and we stood out on the edge of the carpark, leaning over the metal railing, watching the sun go down over the bowls club, and waiting for 6pm. And I remember looking at our forearms next to each other, and how different they were: his so pale, covered in cinnamon freckles and fine copper hairs, and mine dark as cocoa and hairless, burnished by the sun's sinking glow.

Put two characters next to each other and highlight one contrasting feature.

You can play around with this:

Silas and Bod have contrasting hands.
The green tentacled beast contrasts with the thousands of fine silver fish on the deck of the boat.
The characters in the carpark have contrasting forearms.

Juxtapose two characters to highlight their physical differences.

Juxtaposition doesn't only apply to characters.

What happens when we use contrast to describe the environment?

Contrast & juxtaposition