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  Literary Characters
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<h1 id="Literary-Characters">Literary Characters<a class="anchor-link" href="#Literary-Characters"> </a></h1><p><em>The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn</em> describes a journey that Huck and Jim take along the Mississippi River. Tom Sawyer joins them towards the end as the action heats up. Having loaded the text, we can quickly visualize how many times these characters have each been mentioned at any point in the book.</p>

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<div class=" highlight hl-ipython3"><pre><span></span><span class="c1"># Count how many times the names Jim, Tom, and Huck appear in each chapter.</span>

<span class="n">counts</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Table</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">with_columns</span><span class="p">([</span>
        <span class="s1">&#39;Jim&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">char</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">count</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">huck_finn_chapters</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Jim&#39;</span><span class="p">),</span>
        <span class="s1">&#39;Tom&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">char</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">count</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">huck_finn_chapters</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Tom&#39;</span><span class="p">),</span>
        <span class="s1">&#39;Huck&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">char</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">count</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">huck_finn_chapters</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Huck&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
    <span class="p">])</span>

<span class="c1"># Plot the cumulative counts:</span>
<span class="c1"># how many times in Chapter 1, how many times in Chapters 1 and 2, and so on.</span>

<span class="n">cum_counts</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">counts</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">cumsum</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">with_column</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;Chapter&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">arange</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">44</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="n">cum_counts</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">column_for_xticks</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">plots</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">title</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;Cumulative Number of Times Each Name Appears&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mf">1.08</span><span class="p">);</span>
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<p>In the plot above, the horizontal axis shows chapter numbers and the vertical axis shows how many times each character has been mentioned up to and including that chapter.</p>
<p>You can see that Jim is a central character by the large number of times his name appears. Notice how Tom is hardly mentioned for much of the book until he arrives and joins Huck and Jim, after Chapter 30. His curve and Jim's rise sharply at that point, as the action involving both of them intensifies. As for Huck, his name hardly appears at all, because he is the narrator.</p>

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<p><em>Little Women</em> is a story of four sisters growing up together during the civil war. In this book, chapter numbers are spelled out and chapter titles are written in all capital letters.</p>

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<div class=" highlight hl-ipython3"><pre><span></span><span class="c1"># The chapters of Little Women, in a table</span>

<span class="n">Table</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">with_column</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;Chapters&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">little_women_chapters</span><span class="p">)</span>
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<table border="1" class="dataframe">
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>Chapters</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>ONE

PLAYING PILGRIMS

"Christmas won't be Christmas wit ...</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>TWO

A MERRY CHRISTMAS

Jo was the first to wake in the  ...</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>THREE

THE LAURENCE BOY

"Jo!  Jo!  Where are you?" crie ...</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>FOUR

BURDENS

"Oh, dear, how hard it does seem to take  ...</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>FIVE

BEING NEIGHBORLY

"What in the world are you going ...</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>SIX

BETH FINDS THE PALACE BEAUTIFUL

The big house did  ...</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>SEVEN

AMY'S VALLEY OF HUMILIATION

"That boy is a perfe ...</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>EIGHT

JO MEETS APOLLYON

"Girls, where are you going?"  ...</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>NINE

MEG GOES TO VANITY FAIR

"I do think it was the mo ...</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>TEN

THE P.C. AND P.O.

As spring came on, a new set of  ...</td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>
<p>... (37 rows omitted)</p>
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<p>We can track the mentions of main characters to learn about the plot of this book as well.  The protagonist Jo interacts with her sisters Meg, Beth, and Amy regularly, up until Chapter 27 when she moves to New York alone.</p>

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<div class=" highlight hl-ipython3"><pre><span></span><span class="c1"># Counts of names in the chapters of Little Women</span>

<span class="n">counts</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Table</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">with_columns</span><span class="p">([</span>
        <span class="s1">&#39;Amy&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">char</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">count</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">little_women_chapters</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Amy&#39;</span><span class="p">),</span>
        <span class="s1">&#39;Beth&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">char</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">count</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">little_women_chapters</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Beth&#39;</span><span class="p">),</span>
        <span class="s1">&#39;Jo&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">char</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">count</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">little_women_chapters</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Jo&#39;</span><span class="p">),</span>
        <span class="s1">&#39;Meg&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">char</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">count</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">little_women_chapters</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Meg&#39;</span><span class="p">),</span>
        <span class="s1">&#39;Laurie&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">char</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">count</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">little_women_chapters</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Laurie&#39;</span><span class="p">),</span>

    <span class="p">])</span>

<span class="c1"># Plot the cumulative counts.</span>

<span class="n">cum_counts</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">counts</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">cumsum</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">with_column</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;Chapter&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">arange</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">48</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="n">cum_counts</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">column_for_xticks</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">plots</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">title</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;Cumulative Number of Times Each Name Appears&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mf">1.08</span><span class="p">);</span>
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<p>Laurie is a young man who marries one of the girls in the end. See if you can use the plots to guess which one.</p>

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