A character without a name. Annoying?

Hollan · May 16, 2007

In my WIP the main character is simply called 'the boy' for the first 25,000 words or so. He has a name, but he gets a new one. So I thought that instead of confusing the reader by introducing him w/ one name and then asking them to forget it later and refer to him with the new one, I would just never give his old name. Would anyone find this annoying?

The naming is a very important part of the book. And the boy has a good reason for not sharing his old name with anyone, but I want to make sure it's not going to be a deterrent for readers or anything.

Thank you very much!

scarletpeaches · May 16, 2007

Well if he knows his name it would be unusual for him not to acknowledge that, although thinking about it...I don't go about thinking, "My name's Nichola, my name's Nichola." I just tell people when they ask what it is.

Perhaps it could be written in first person, thereby giving the MC reason to say I or me, rather than the POV using his real name or 'boy'?

Mr. E · May 16, 2007

Hollan said:
The naming is a very important part of the book. And the boy has a good reason for not sharing his old name with anyone, but I want to make sure it's not going to be a deterrent for readers or anything.

If you make this clear to the reader, I would be intrigued, not annoyed.

James D. Macdonald · May 16, 2007

Does it work?

That's the only question.

Calla Lily · May 16, 2007

Bill Pronzini does it well in his "Nameless Detective" series, but those are 1st person. Can't quite picture it in any other POV.

maestrowork · May 16, 2007

As long as the readers won't be confused and the character is vivid, I don't see any problem.

Pagey's_Girl · May 16, 2007

It wouldn't be annoying to me if it were obvious that his finding out his true name was integral to the plot - building up to the revelation of who he really is, say. You could build some real suspense with it.

Edit - from your description it is, obviously, but no, I don't really see a problem with it at all.

scarletpeaches · May 16, 2007

The main character in Rebecca doesn't have a name, but again, this is a first-person novel.

newmod · May 16, 2007

It could work. I thought of Pale Rider when I read this, if memory serves he´s referred to as Preacher, but never by name.

job · May 16, 2007

There is no particular problem with having a character change names in the middle of a story. LOTS of stories call a character one thing and then shift around and call him something else.

Then
(jo adds darkly)
there are the big fat Russian novels that call the characters five or six different things all the way through.

Strider/Aragorn
Ged/Sparrowhawk
Tip/Ozma
are name pairs that come to mind.

So you can balance the
'I don't want to confuse the reader with two names"
against the
'for the entire first half of the story, no one can address him by name or refer to him by name.'
circumlocutions.

I think the 'I will confuse the reader' problem may be less important than you imagine.

WriterInChains · May 16, 2007

It could work. I didn't find Fight Club annoying at all.

Break a leg!

Storyteller5 · May 16, 2007

I think if the story's written well enough, the reader will be involved in the story and not thinking about why the boy isn't named.

It's been a while since I read it, but in The Gunslinger, isn't it a while into the book before we find out his name is Roland?

Shady Lane · May 16, 2007

The Year of Endless Sorrows by Adam Rapp never names the main character. This is another first person, though.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower--a standard, of course, names the main character and a few other keys but everyone else is "my sister" "my brother" "my sister's boyfriend" the whole way through. Charlie even warns us at the beginning that all the names he does use are fake. I always wonder if the author thinks of the characters in the names in the book, or if he knows their "real" names....[/digression]

I remember having to read The Alchemist for school, and it talks about "Santiago" and "the boy" interchangably and it took me forever to realize they were the same person. That's the only time, though, that I can ever remember it irritating me.

Sassee · May 16, 2007

Nah, it wouldn't be annoying. I do the same thing if my main character doesn't know someone's name... she's labelled people based on their appearance until names are revealed, such as "The Giant," "Mr. Sunglasses," "Mr. Steroids," "Mr. Trench Coat," "the dog" etc.

I'd be interested in reading the story so I could figure out why the little boy doesn't want anyone knowing his name.

Does that help?

Scrawler · May 16, 2007

It would bug me. I can't remember the name of the novel, but someone got too cute and called the characters Girl, Boy, Friend, and then kept it up by calling the workplace Job, etc.
Is keeping readers in the dark about the name the best way to build tension, or would telling readers the name, yet not allowing the other characters to know it a better way?

maestrowork · May 16, 2007

The Old Man and the Sea.

The Scip · May 16, 2007

I tried to write a short story this that one. The MC was just "the man" when i wrote it I thought it sounded cool, then when i went back and read it i annoyed the hell out of myself.

That being said, I'm sure if it were done right it could give the desired effect.

Flay · May 16, 2007

The main character of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian (which is in 3rd person) is never named. He's "the kid" throughout.

Chris Grey · May 16, 2007

Check out The Silmarillion: some characters change their names repeatedly over their careers. There's nothing wrong with introducing your character with a name and then changing it when necessary.

AndreaGS · May 16, 2007

I think it might bother me. If no one else is called "the boy" or could be identified as such, and he simply has no name at all, there's a chance it wouldn't.

If you want to make it easy on yourself, you can just have him switch names. As others have pointed out above, other authors have done it with little to no problems. Good luck!

Penguin Queen · May 16, 2007

In my mystery novel, the two main characters change names -- the narrator has already changed hers, the other one is found out to be called something different half-way through.

Job has given some great examples where a name change of a main character has been carried out well.

Ive not written anything of novel length with a third-person nameless characreres, but I have several short stories of around 5000 words where that is the case.

I think it could work either way - nameless or name change - as long as it's done well.
Then again, thats true for almost everything.

Tia Nevitt · May 16, 2007

In the Ill Made Mute (by [SIZE=-1]Cecilia Dart-Thornton) [/SIZE]and its sequels, the main character has a different name for each book. I think she has a total of four names, because she finally finds out what her REAL name is. It got annoying after a few renamings, but I didn't mind her going nameless until she received her first name. That was at least 25,000 words in, I believe.

chartreuse · May 16, 2007

Throat Sprockets by Tim Lucas has a nameless protagonist. I loved that book - it didn't bother me in the slightest.

James D. Macdonald · May 16, 2007

The short story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson (which became the movie They Live) had a nameless protagonist.

Len Deighton's spy novels (such as A Funeral in Berlin) had a nameless protagonist.

Don't worry about this point. If your book requires that your character not be named, don't name him.

jonereb · May 16, 2007

High Plains Drifter immediately came to mind.

A character without a name. Annoying?

Stage name = Chainsaw Sally

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