Question

Which sentence in this excerpt from Mark Twain’s short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is an example of direct characterization?
I found Simon Wheeler dozing comfortably by the barroom stove of the old, dilapidated tavern in the ancient mining camp of Angel's, and I noticed that he was fat and bald-headed, and had an expression of winning gentleness and simplicity upon his tranquil countenance. He roused up and gave me good-day. I told him a friend of mine had commissioned me to make some inquiries about a cherished companion of his boyhood named Leonidas W. Smiley — Rev. Leonidas W. Smiley — a young minister of the Gospel, who he had heard was at one time a resident of Angel's Camp. I added, that, if Mr. Wheeler, could tell me anything about this Rev. Leonidas W. Smiley, I would feel under many obligations to him. Simon Wheeler backed me into a corner and blockaded me there with his chair, and then sat me down and reeled off the monotonous narrative which follows this paragraph.

Answer 1

In order for books to be interesting, we need to have heroes with compelling character, "ethos". The character can be presented in two ways; Indirect, where the author describes the acts of the heroes and let us characterize him and direct, where he describes the character by himself. The expression that fits this definition the most is: I noticed that he was fat and bald-headed, and had an expression of winning gentleness and simplicity upon his tranquil countenance. This expression has 2 adjectives and also describes his expression directly.