Character Study: Acceptable Risk by Robin Cook

1. My character, Kim Stewart, is a woman in her 20's to 30's with some crazy hair. She has deep green eyes that have the ability to mesmerize any man. I picture Kim as a small, not ostentatious and down to earth girl. She is employed as a nurse, so therefore she much be pretty clean at all times too.

2. Kim's personality is somewhat mixed. She is a very shy, timid person that doesn't like confrontations. You could say that Kim is more helpful than the others because she is a nurse and she cares a lot about people. She is loyal, intelligent, and sensitive.

3. I don't know if you can say that my character has any motivations, however, I can think of a few. She is motivated to search and search through mounds of material in order to prove her ancestor's innocence in the Salem Witch Trials. I also believe she has motivation to survive when all of the staff members transform into beasts and hunt her down. Otherwise, I can not really find any other motivation that Kim might have during this book.

4. Kim experiences a lot of conflicts during this book. She first has to deal with the break up of a long time romantic partner. Kim can't handle coming into contact with him for a long time, however, in the end the two become friends and eventually move in together...again. Next, Kim experiences a constant struggle with her father. He doesn't support anything she does and is always criticizing and discouraging Kim from doing what she really wants to do. Then, she meets a new man that convinces her to transform her family acreage into a state-of-the-art laboratory. Kim then spends countless hours trying to make the place as good of a home as possible. At the very end of this book, Kim faces a life and death situation with the staff members of Omni (a company started by her boyfriend to develop an experimental drug) hunting her down. She uses all her resources and survives. In the process, she burns down a house and kills most of the staff. I think that Kim handled all the conflicts as best she could besides with her father because she never did get the courage to stand up to him anywhere in the book.

5. Kim does not undergo many changes in the course of this novel. At the beginning of this book she was a timid, shy woman that avoided any possibility of a confrontation. By the end she was still relatively shy, but she did gain a lot of confidence and courage from the near death experiences she had just faced in her life. Although, she had gained some courage and confidence, Kim was still not likely to go up to a random guy on the street and ask him out.

6. I can honestly say that I had no personal connections with this character. Kim was a shy, quiet woman that didn't like conflict and I feel I am the exact opposite of that. I am outgoing, loud, and don't mind a little mix-up in the plans that I had. I couldn't really relate to the problems she was having in the book because I seldom experience any problems in my life other than having a lot of homework. Therefore, Kim and I will most likely not end up getting married. I know that sounds weird, but I think you will get my point.

7. I think that Kim was the perfect character for this book. She was pushed around and used throughout the book, but she still persisted through in addition to gaining some confidence of her own. Next, she had the perfect background for this story...I know it would have taken ages to come up with a good storyline like this one and have the parts of the story relate so well. I believe Kim couldn't have been made better for this book because she was exactly how I would have pictured her.