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Revision as of 01:50, 28 August 2005 by DryaUnda (talk | contribs) (Spelling correction of 'answered'.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)A token character is a character in a story, myth, or legend, that only exists to achieve the minimum compliance with assumed normality for the environment described in the story. For example, a token wife is a wife who has no depth of character, or identity of her own, but only exists because the character, that she is married to, is expected to have a wife.
A token character can also be used by writers to pay lip service to rules or standards, when they otherwise have no intention of doing so, such as by obeying anti-racism policies by including a token black character, who, despite being present a large amount, nethertheless does nothing, and has no function in the plot. In this situation the creation of such characters is referred to as Tokenism.
The "token black" character is ridiculed in the movie Not Another Teen Movie. In the movie, one character, when asked a question, answered: "I'm just the token black guy! I'm just to stand here, stay out of the conversation, and say things like "shit!", "damn!" and "that is whacked!"". Later, he does just that.
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