How do great writers use scars to reveal character?

They say every scar has a story, and they’re right. If you hurt yourself, you better hope there’s a nice legend to go with the wound.

Trust me, you’re talking to a guy who got his finger run over by a skate, knocked someone into his brace, and recently scraped both knees. Scars hurt, but if you can tell a story about them, they reveal something about you and your past. We see that great writers can develop characters this way and build storylines from there.

The same goes for your characters. So this begs the question, does your character have scars? And if so, what can they reveal about them?

Today we’re going to take a look at some characters with scars and show you how you can use these physical ailments to shape your character.

How do great writers use scars to reveal character?

Look, you came for the Joker in The dark knightso why not at the top? “Do you want to know how I got these scars?”

Those lines really undermine all the lessons you’re about to learn. For Joker, the scars are always explained away to create a backstory that’s a lie. He’s an enigma of a man. He’s always playing tricks on us, always trying to pull on our heartstrings. There’s been a lot of theorizing about Joker’s origins: is he a soldier coming back from Afghanistan trying to destroy Gotham? Is he a mafia member who’s lost his mind? We’ll never know. Sometimes the scars that can’t be explained are the scariest.

Scar face

Let’s start with some other obvious characters… like Scar in The Lion King and Tony Montana in Scar face! Both have the title of the article in their name, so you know they’re interesting examples. Scar is animated, and to differentiate him from the other ions, we see a cut in his eye. While we never really hear why he has it, we do know how much he likes to scrape. This pays off later when he kills Mufasa and takes over the pack.

Tony Montana is a man who isn’t afraid to get hurt and rise to the top. He has a large scar on the left side of his face from when he was a kid. The immigration officer who interrogates him asks if he got it from doing special things to a woman. Montana says the classic line, “You should see the other boy. You don’t recognize him.”

This is ominous and points to the violence he will inflict on others. His scars, on his face, also become a way his enemies see him: they know how much trouble they are in when they encounter Scarface.

Jaws

Of course, scars don’t have to be all bad. I love it when they’re shared to reveal something. Think of the drinking scene in Jaws. Scars are shown between Hooper and Quint as a dick-measuring contest. They both want to know who is the king of the sea. But when Quint lays out the USS Indianapolis map, Hooper has to give up. There is even a moment where Brody looks like he is going to share a scar. The prevailing rumor was that it was a gunshot wound that drove him out of New York City, but I believe it is a scar from a removed appendix that he does not want to tell.

Anyway, we get a lot of background information here. We fully understand why Quint hates sharks so much and the trauma he went through made him the man he is today.

Chasing Amy

A great tribute to this scene takes place in Chasing Amywhere the characters have a similar scene where they talk about scars they’ve gotten from various sexual acts. Again, it builds a backstory for the two characters. We know they enjoy sex, we know they’re experienced, and that will all pay off later when their sexual escapades are part of what each person has to confront in order to have a relationship in the present.

There are scars on countless characters. Think of Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bridewho is looking for the six-fingered man who murdered his father and cut his cheeks. Or Marv, in City of Sinwhich is covered in scars from which he cannot recover.

But what about the bigger ones?

Yes, I’m talking about Harry Potter. The guy is completely defined by a scar on his forehead, which carries us through eight films and seven books. That scar is important and becomes the ultimate clue to how he can defeat his enemy. It also defines him to the people around him. They either laugh at it, fear it, or embrace it. That scar carries him forward.

As you can see, by putting a scar on an individual, big or small, you can create a perfect transition into their backstory. We can learn how they got it, what they learned, and how that plays into the rest of your story.

So, who is your favorite character with scars? Let us know in the comments.