Character Stories – Enneagram and Encaustic

LIEUTENANT DAN TAYLOR, FOUR

He’s so impulsive and angry; is Lt. Dan an Eight? An Eight, a Body Type, who loses part of his physical ability would have a difficult recovery.

What if Dan is a Heart Type, though? It’s a joke in the movie that Dan’s every ancestor has died in war, and Dan expects the same fate. A Four would feel pretty pissed off at getting cheated out of a glorious death.

Dan is more emotionally volatile than an Eight would be. “You call this a storm?!” He loves this conflict, this fight between his will and nature’s. It’s not about physical power, though. An Eight would ask for his body to be changed; for Dan, his heart needs to change. Until this moment he’s dominated by depression and can’t move forward with his life.

I also like him as a Four because he is another Heart Type companion for Forrest Gump. It’s consistent.

BUBBA BLUE, TWO

Who doesn’t love Bubba? Of course, like Jenny, he’s kinda fridged so that Forrest Gump can have feelings.

Is Bubba, like Jenny, also a Two?

I mean, he has a collection, which is a Man Two trait. He collects shrimp recipes!

It’s interesting that Forrest would surround himself with the same Enneagram. (Or, the showrunners would stick to writing the same kind of character who befriends Forrest and then dies.)

Bubba is a complete character, though. He’s written for laughs, but Mykelti Williamson gives us more than comedy (or pathos). We believe that he and Forrest have a connection strong enough to last beyond Bubba’s death. Making Bubba a Two is a wise choice.

JENNY CURRAN, TWO

She is a sexually-abused child who grows up to become a wounded woman. Drugs, hurtful boyfriends, rash choices, and suicidal moments are what we see of her. She wants to be a folk singer, like Joan Baez, but she performs nude (with her guitar as her modesty shield) in a strip club. She’s a character who breaks our hearts, but she’s also a plot device to break Forrest’s heart. Is Jenny actually a complete person, or is she only an archetype of pain?

At the end of the movie, Jenny is a real character. She’s grown, she has an arc, and she’s exorcised her demons.

But she’s also fridged, lol.

Okay, let’s dig. I immediately jump to Heart Type because she carries so much emotion. She’s not strong enough to be a Four — she would need power moments and not just trodden moments. She’s clearly not a Three. Maybe a Two? An abused Two can break into pieces like Jenny does.

I’ll take it. I like that her damaged Two is supported by Forrest’s Eight-to-Two confidence. It’s a good match beyond plot shenanigans. Also, when Jenny finds her strength, it’s in the healthcare field. A genuine Two at peace could choose that career.

FORREST GUMP, EIGHT

As I said in my review of the protagonist in The Accountant, any Enneagram choice must be about the character beyond their neurodiversity. Showrunners just can’t present a hero with no specific defining traits.

What are the possibilities for Forrest?

He’s a “running fool”. My first thought is about a Body Type. Someone who needs that physical expression — running across the country — could be a Nine, Eight, or One. However, he doesn’t seem like a Nine. “Sorry I ruined your Black Panther party” is not spoken by someone who avoids conflict. He’ll mix it up with anyone if he thinks he’s defending Jenny. Is he an Eight?

Yes. Think of his bravery during the war. He goes back for everyone, tirelessly. That leadership, that instinctual heroism, is Eight-like.

He’s so connected to his friends — Bubba, Lt. Dan — that I thought he might be a Heart Type. I prefer to think of him as an Eight moving toward his strength number, Two. Perhaps his mental challenge lets him discard the darker side of his Enneagram. He’s never stingy, which would be his weak number (Five) reaction. He’s always compassionate and generous. I really like the idea that Forrest leans heavily into the Two aspect of his Enneagram.

But he’s still an Eight. I only need remember his table tennis prowess to feel certain of that.

BRAX, THREE?

In flashbacks of The Accountant we know that protagonist Wolff has a younger brother but we don’t know what became of him. For quite a while we only see Wolff. Eventually we realize that the man set against Wolff is his brother, who’s given the non-descript name of Brax. It’s an intriguing Eight moment when they recognize each other. And now we know that the sequel will feature the brothers together prominently, as almost a buddy comedy, or so it sounds. Therefore it’s important to look at him in the first movie.

Brax is an assassin. How he ended up in this job is not explained. He’s also slightly too enthusiastic about the chase. I would not say that Brax is psychotic. However, he’s not breaking his own moral code to do the work.

So, does assassin line up with a particular Enneagram?

I immediately gravitate toward a Body Type. All we see of him, from child to adult, is physical aggression.

But I want to say he’s a Heart Type. He’s become an accomplished fighter in order to defend his brother. In the flashbacks we see how much the father depends on Brax to protect Christian. His dad can send him into a fight like he would a dog. As a child, Brax acts from loyalty; as an adult, no one holds his leash.

I’m not sure that this movie gives us enough on Brax to identify which of the Heart Types he would be. We’ll need to wait for more information. Two, Three, or Four? I’m going to lean toward Three, just because he’s so competent. He’s always had a confidence. Let’s put a question mark on it, though, and revisit his character after watching the sequel.

UPDATE: Brax is a Four.

In The Accountant 2, a film I cannot recommend, Brax shows the emotional volatility of the other Heart Type number.

CHRISTIAN WOLFF, NINE

With The Accountant 2 releasing to theaters, I took the chance to watch the first movie and enjoyed it. Wolff, the protagonist, is a high-functioning autist with a talent for math and numbers. However, as we learn in flashbacks, Wolff’s father, an Army officer, has trained him (or abused him) to be a martial artist and gun expert. Wolff’s accounting office in a backwater strip mall is a cover for his business with mafia-type clients.

I’m interested to look at Wolff’s character. He will have certain traits common to autists: sensitivity to bright light, loud noise, and touch. He is compelled to complete tasks. These behaviors will be the first thing we notice about him; finding his Enneagram becomes more difficult because we need to look beyond his autism. The showrunners — writer, director, and actor, Ben Affleck — must give us a complete person and not rely solely on his neurodiversity. Did they?

He’s physically competent. I don’t know if that makes him a Body Type, though. His father basically forced him to learn. What we do see is a determination of will in him. He won’t quit when he’s a child, and he won’t abandon his mission when he’s an adult. This is possibly a Nine’s sense of justice.

Although he longs to connect socially with other people, Wolff doesn’t seem like a Heart Type. We briefly meet a girl, Justine, at the medical facility who has a very difficult time with stimuli. Yet we can feel how strongly she wants to connect with others. This character feels like a Heart Type to me. Although she and Wolff are both autists, they handle the world differently.

I also wonder if people immediately assume that an autist with a mathematics gift is going to be a Head Type? Nothing about Wolff leans into that. Partly, the casting of Affleck, a large man, stops that. Typically a Head Type would be a smaller, slighter man. Also, Wolff processes the world physically rather than mentally.

You know, I started out with a Nine and I think I’ll end up there. I’ve never delved into Affleck’s roles, but at a glance he seems to always play a Nine. Think Batman and Good Will Hunting. Some actors, even the great ones, will settle into a niche. Spencer Tracy is beloved for it. I have no problem with an actor who knows his sweet spot. This is an action movie with an interesting backstory. Casting someone who reliably plays a Nine is good business, and it works. The movie is entertaining.

But it wouldn’t work as well without Wolff’s brother. We’ll need to take a look at his character, too, on another day.

Who is the protagonist of “Wuthering Heights”?

Hopefully you’ve read my other musings on this novel. (If not, click on the tag.)

We know that Heathcliff and Nelly Dean are the only characters who are present at the beginning, middle, and end. It’s natural to look to them as potential protagonists.

However, film versions focus also on Catherine. In movies, she and Heathcliff are the main romantic pairing, even though the book portrays them as beyond romance. In the novel they have no sexual chemistry or desire to build a married life and family — they are simply one person in two bodies. For love in the book, look to Cathi and Hareton. Every meeting they have is described in the language of a romance novel. They begin star-crossed, overcome their adversities, and become a couple. We see them being ‘shipped at every step of the way and enjoy the unfolding of their love. All of the remaining characters who strike at and torment each other are forgotten due to the winsome duo at the end. We are redeemed by their tenderness and forgiveness. I don’t know how a faithful adaptation could leave them out and focus instead on the Catherine relationship.

Film versions also downplay Nelly’s character. She’s just the narrator, they say. That attitude ignores how often she moves the story forward. The conflict between her role as an innocent storyteller and an interfering servant is essential to the plot. She wins in the end. Her two “children”, the babies she nursed, fall in love and achieve happiness. Heathcliff’s plan to tear down the households is defeated. These competing objectives, Heathcliff vs. Nelly, are the foundation of the story. We need both of these characters in complete detail. To focus on Catherine is to miss the tension. Also, adding to the complexity, Nelly is one of the only people Heathcliff doesn’t treat with malice. They are comrades and adversaries simultaneously. Their objectives are opposite; neither can let the other win. Yet, they are kind to each other. They are the only characters who consistently treat each other with charity.

Story Enneagram of “Wuthering Heights” (the novel)

Is this a compelling story? It’s been made into many film versions, so the obvious answer is yes. But why? It tells of unbelievable cruelty. Somehow showrunners have twisted this plot into a romantic drama with Heathcliff as a hero. Let’s see what the book actually says.

ONE

Introduce the players and the two house locations. We are approximately six months before the present day.

The tenant of Thrushcross Grange (TG), Mr. Lockwood, is our entrance point. He walks over to visit his landlord Heathcliff at Wuthering Heights (WH). We meet some very unhappy people: Young Catherine (Cathi) and the rustic Hareton.

TWO

Lockwood returns the next day and becomes caught by a snowstorm and is forced to stay overnight. No one will help or take pity on him. Finally the housekeeper Zillah finds him a place to rest. This is Catherine’s room when she was a child. Lockwood sleeps in her cupboard bed and encounters her ghost. When Heathcliff finds him there he kicks him out and begs Catherine to come to him.

THREE

Lockwood, who caught a cold from his adventures in the snow, is bedridden. Nelly Dean, the housekeeper at TG and an old family servant at WH, entertains him with the story of Heathcliff, which is the majority of the book. Let the history begin . . .

CATHERINE EARNSHAW, EIGHT

This is The Cathy, the one everyone who’s seen a Wuthering Heights movie probably considers the protagonist. Her maiden name is Earnshaw, her married is Linton. Her daughter is named Catherine Linton, so the Cathys in this story pile up and become confusing.

However, this is the Cathy who loves Heathcliff. (The one Kate Bush wrote a song about.) They are wild children together, running over the moors. Later, when Cathy grows into a beautiful and eligible young woman, she drops Heathcliff in order to marry her respectable and gentle neighbor, Edgar Linton. She loves him, too, in a different, less volatile way.

And then Cathy dies. Remember, I’m looking at the book characters. Merle Oberon dies at the end of the movie; in the novel Cathy dies in the middle and the other characters continue forward through the second half. For someone who seems central to the plot, she disappears in a shocking way.

Also, when you read the book, Cathy’s cruelty is surprising. She spits on Heathcliff when she first meets him. She’s barbaric and unrestrained until an injury lays her up at the Linton house for a month. Their gentility and manners change her. Because she’s not the protagonist, though, her motivations are muddy. She dumps her soulmate, Heathcliff, for an elegant life. She claims she can’t live without him — Heathcliff is her soul — but then she does for a while. The conflict between the two men wears her down and her health succumbs to weakness.

Cathy is not a kind person or even an admirable one. She is passionate sometimes (as opposed to Heathcliff, who is on fire every moment). What Character Enneagram could she possibly be?

She’s no Head Type. It’s plausible that she’s a Heart Type, but compared to Heathcliff she pales. I think we need to call her a Body Type. Her reaction to conflict is to strike or react physically. She longs for the moors, the fresh air, and the unencumbered space to run free. I could argue that when she marries and confines herself to a lady’s life in the house, she begins to decline. Heathcliff wants to get her outside to revive her spirit; it’s the right instinct.

This is an Eight. She’s too unbound by rules to be a One, and she’s too eager for conflict to be a Nine.

Interesting. I complain often about Hollywood making their girl boss characters an Eight as a default position. Cathy is a true and complex Eight. She’s not heroic, but she’s strong. Why does she step away from that strength to marry Edgar? Social expectation? A desire for comfort and beauty? She and Heathcliff are two halves of one person, by their own admission, yet she parts them.

I’ll dig into the actual story later. My answer must lie there, I hope.

ELLEN (NELLY) DEAN, SIX

Who’s that, perhaps you wonder. She’s the narrator and housekeeper. If you’ve seen the Wuthering Heights movies, she’s that older lady in the background, a gentle and tender presence.

Heh. That’s some high artistic license, considering Nelly’s role in the novel.

Nelly is the only character besides Heathcliff who spans the entire story. She’s there at the beginning, a child in the Earnshaw household when the Master brings Heathcliff home. She grows up with him and Cathy. When Cathy marries Edgar Linton, Nelly follows her into the new household. She’s the primary caregiver for Cathy’s motherless daughter. Although Heathcliff is cruel to everyone who isn’t Cathy, he’s kind to Nelly. They’re old comrades. She can even speak frankly with him and upbraid him.

This is a major character who’s barely noticed in the films.

She’s a tricky one, though. As the narrator, she speaks well of herself and her own actions, yet some of her choices are ruinous. She’s a tattler; she doesn’t really like Cathy and she undermines her. If a literary survey course were to study novels with an unreliable narrator, this book should be at the top of the list.

I’ll delve later into how the story changes if Nelly is its protagonist (versus Heathcliff).

In the meantime, what is her Character Enneagram? Whew, yikes.

She is a single woman her whole life and shows no sign of wishing to be married. When she cares for Cathy Jr., whom she loves dearly, she doesn’t necessarily envy the Linton’s family. Let’s say she’s not a Heart Type.

She’s a terrible busybody. And she’s very confident. She knows her role as a servant, but she also pushes the boundary, perhaps because she was raised among them. I’m leaning toward a Head Type.

She strikes me as too good a liar to be a Five, and she’s not adventurous enough to be a Seven. What if Nelly’s a Six? She has a clear definition of what’s right and wrong, even though sometimes it’s only her definition. Heathcliff is dangerous to others, but Nelly doesn’t fear him. She’s categorized him over their lifetime together. It allows her to be bold with him because he fits in the box she’s defined. For Heathcliff, he hates weak people the most; Nelly is strong with him, so he finds her companionable. She doesn’t have a physical dominance over him; it’s a dominance of character, something a Six would do well.