I believe these parts provide direct characterization: "<span>Endowed with commonsense, as massive and hard as blocks of granite, fastened together by stern rigidity of purpose, as with iron clamps, he followed out his original design, probably without so much as imagining an objection to it."
The writer clearly and directly describes the character's personal features, as well as his internal motivation for an action. It is opposed to indirect characterization, where we can grasp the character's traits or motivation through his/her actions or speech.</span>
It is appropriate for a research paper because it is not opinion based or based in fantasy, it is a real thing you can do research on.
Mumble, the most livable character in the famous DreamWorks movie Happy Feet, has bright icy blue eyes, and is covered in black feathers EXCEPT for his front, which is a silver-grey to white in the middle. He has black feet and under his neck is a patch of dark grey feathers colored in the shape of a bow tie. Hope this helps!
The second option is definitely more complicated
