Somthing interesting I thought you might like...
Media: Written Portrait (Glee)
Title: Assignment 2, part 1
Rating: G
Spoilers: Up to S02E16 Original Songs
Warnings: None
Word count: 552
Summary:This was written as part of an assignment for Creative and Professional Writing 110 at Curtin University. It is a written portrait, based on information presented though the TV show (that is, not any interviews, rumours, ect.
Beta: My C&PW class helped me workshop this.
Completed: March 2011
Disclaimer: No money had been made from the production of this essay. It was written to further my educational qualifercations.
Kurt Hummel
-a supporting character from Glee (played by Chris Colfer)
Kurt Hummel lost his mother at a young age (unclear due to plot inconstancies, somewhere between the age of six and eight years), and his ‘manly-man’ mechanic father, Burt, raised him on his own. Being rather small and effeminate, with a high-pitched voice, it is clear that Kurt and Burt couldn’t be more different. Yet Burt will do everything and anything to protect his son. Kurt’s close relationship with his father is never more evident than when Burt has a heart attack. Kurt not only reacts badly to the prospect of losing his father, but he continues to care and worry over him long after his father recovers. Determined to protect his father by not worrying him, Kurt doesn’t tell him of the excessive abuse he receives at the hands of his class-mates.
For the first season and a half of the TV show, Kurt is exceedingly lonely. As the only openly-gay kid in his school, there is no one else he could possibly have a romantic relationship with, forcing Kurt to grasp and grapple, hanging on to the slightest bit of kindness another guy shows him. Yet with every rejection he is faced with, he keeps on going. When he finally meets a potential love-interest, Blaine Anderson (an out-and proud gay guy from a near-by school), Kurt has been pushed to breaking point, and is desperate to find someone else who understands what he is going through, who he can relate to. But even when it appears that Blaine isn’t romantically interested in him, Kurt still supports him when he wants to serenade another guy (although Blaine going on an experimental date with Kurt’s best (female) friend was pushing it).
Kurt is supportive and loyal, refusing to hurt those he cares about, even when they are insulting and hurting him. For example, when the guy who was to become his step-brother called him a fag, however much it hurt him, Kurt refused to fight back, and would not have responded to Finn’s insults had his father not intervened.
Kurt Hummel is a highly complex character. Often he is portrayed as someone who would normally never compromise his beliefs and values, being so proud of who he is. For example, during his father’s heart attack, he was being pressured by other characters to pray and to allow them to pray for him also. However, being an atheist, Kurt point-blank refused to be pressured into participating in something he didn’t believe in. Yet when he transfers to the private all-boys school, Dalton Academy, he conforms to their standards of uniformity, rather being his usual flamboyant and individual self. When discussing the changes and transition, he confesses that “[Dalton] is really making me question everything about myself.”
Glee is far from the most consistent television show around, yet Kurt Hummel is a complex, highly developed character with so many layers that are not always visible to the world. It is to the writers credit that such a “moral and compassionate”, yet realistic character exists at all.
This portrait was written with the aid of single-source researching (that is, many, many hours spent fangirling over my favourite television show). Any inconsistencies within this portrait are a result of inconsistencies by the writers of Glee.