Sookie+Stackhouse+(True+Blood)



Sookie Stackhouse  By: Erin Daniels

**Background** Sookie Stackhouse is the main character and narrator of the award-winning HBO drama, True Blood. The series follows Sookie as well as her family and friends around their fictional hometown of Bon Temps, Louisiana. Sookie is the youngest child and only daughter to Corbett and Michelle Stackhouse and the only sister to older brother Jason Stackhouse. Corbett and Michelle died suddenly in a flash flood in Bon Temp when Sookie was eight years old and her and Jason were left to live with their grandparents Francis and Adele “Gran” Stackhouse (Ball, 2008-2011).

Although Sookie was trying to live a normal, American girl life, she has been living with and struggling with a secret: she has telepathic abilities meaning that she can hear others’ thoughts. She has been able to conceal her secret from everyone except for those especially close to her including those in her family. She also puts forth an exceptional effort into blocking out the thoughts of those in her family as well as her close friends and co-workers (Ball, 2008-2011).

In her adult years, Sookie is employed at the local bar, Merlotte’s Bar and Grill, owned by townsperson and close friend, Sam Merlotte. Her co-workers are made up of a collection of her close friends including her best childhood friend, Tara Thornton, as well as Lafayette Reynolds and Arlene Fowler. It is at Merlotte’s that Sookie meets a vampire for the first time, Bill Compton, who later becomes Sookie’s boyfriend (Ball, 2008-2011).

In Sookie’s world, vampires are out in society and participating in everyday human life. Along with vampires, warewolves, shape-shifters, witches and warlocks, and maenads (mythological creatures that are the handmaidens of god Dionysus). Sookie is able to pick up on the thoughts of all of these beings, except for vampires, which is a relief for Sookie and a benefit to spending time with Bill (Ball 2008-2011). Because of her ability, Sookie has become a main player in the supernatural being political arena. She has become involved in many conflicts involving her boyfriend, Bill, and his authority persons, Eric Northman and Sophie-Anne, the sheriff and queen of Louisiana, respectively (Ball, 2008-2011).

**Perspective 1 – Person-Situation Interactionist**

 Throughout the development of storylines involving Sookie, there are several different events where Sookie shows different coping and behavior patterns that are specific to each situation. Because of this situation dependent behavior change, her personality can be seen as following along with several theories within the Person-Situation Interactionist Aspects of Personality.

As suggested by Harry Stack Sullivan, “personality consistently changes as a function of elations with others,” (Huntington, 2011). Furthermore, Sullivan continued to say, “we become ‘different’ people in different social situations,” (Huntington, 2011). In the case of Sookie Stackhouse, there tends to be changes in her personality when she is in certain situations and interacting with certain people as according to her relationship with others. For instance, in Season 1 Episode 1, when she first come in contact with Bill Compton, he approached him with curiosity and was eager to get to know him, especially because he was also a deviant member of society, just as she is. She was even still very willing to get to know Bill even after many of her close friends advised her to cease contact with Bill. However, Sookie remained steadfast to herself and kept her behavior consistent with the ways in which she saw her life and behavior continuing (Ball, 20082 ). media type="youtube" key="W261uHRCFQs" height="390" width="640" Similarly, when Sookie is interacting with her grandmother, she approaches each instance with care as to retain certain details that she feel would be inappropriate to discuss with her grandmother.

Since Sookie has her telepathic abilities, she also has an extra pressure when interacting with other people, especially people that are not aware of the abilities that she has. When she is in contact with people who do not know of her abilities, she has to be careful not to reveal that she can hear their thoughts by answering unanswered questions. Because of this, she approaches unfamiliar people with caution and she is hesitant to interact for an extended period of time with unknown people. As a waitress, it can be difficult to maintain a distance between herself and customers that she does not know well (Ball, 2008-2011).

 Sookie also has a great aptitude for courage and shows this trait in numerous situations in which she must react in the best interest of others. When she is approached by other supernatural beings, which is quite often in her day-to-day life, she is able to act quickly and often reacts in the best interests of others. For example, when Sookie first met Bill, two humans who were interested in draining and selling his blood as a drug, attacked him. In that instance, Sookie reacted in order to stop the two drug dealers and was able to. Even though she hardly knew Bill, she reacted in a way that did not benefit herself and instead acted in the best interest of Bill (Ball, 2008-2011).

 As is shown, Sookie Stackhouse comes in contact with many different characters and the way she interacts with each person differs as well. She tends to practice caution when in contact with people that she does not know well or her grandmother. She is also very curious about others and tends to approach others with an open mind while she shows courage in dangerous situations and typically acts in selfless ways.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; line-height: 200%; margin-top: 12pt;">**Perspective 2 – Biological** <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 200%; margin-top: 12pt;"> A second perspective that can be further applied to Sookie Stackhouse is the Biological Aspect of Personality. Her telepathic abilities have been inherited through her family as her paternal grandfather, Francis, who also had telepathic abilities. (Ball, 2008-2011). This superhuman ability greatly shapes her personality because it affects the quality of her interpersonal communication. Because she is a deviant member of her community, and many view her as crazy, she already has a difficulty have meaningful conversations with others and when her ability is factored in, it makes it even harder for her to have quality conversations. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 200%; margin-top: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Sookie’s specific ability shows Direct Genetic Effects because it allows the people who have been bestowed this ability to be able to make decisions that can better others since they have all information available although some information was not voluntarily shared (Huntington, 2011). This ability also has shaped the way the Sookie acts in certain situations and she has frequently been at the service of others to help solve crimes. For instance, when Eric Northman, a vampire, realize that someone had been stealing money from him and his business, he called upon Sookie’s unique ability to help uncover who committed the crime (Ball, 2008<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 200%; margin-top: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in; vertical-align: super;">1 ). media type="youtube" key="67VR6j9eKg4" height="390" width="480" <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 200%; margin-top: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">(only the first three minutes). <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 200%; margin-top: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">This ability also affords Sookie a unique way of navigating through life. Because she has access to people’s hidden thoughts, she is able to shape her actions to what others are expecting of her. Sookie is able to take the effects from her surrounding environment, and can make decisions, with the aid of her ability, to make decisions that better those around her and herself.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 200%; margin-top: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Sookie also shows some evidence of having some Genetic Effects Through Temperament. Even through the several different possible situations that Sookie can be placed in, she often reacts the same emotionally. When considering the four aspects of temperament, Sookie remains stable on the way the reacts to situations (Huntington, 2011). When assessing Sookie’s portrayal of the four aspects (activity, emotionality, sociability, and impulsivity) she seems to be stable in regards to how the aspects apply to her personality (Huntington, 2011). In regards to activity, Sookie is always looking to play an active role in any situation. This can be seen specifically when Sookie is the first to volunteer to be at Bill’s aid in the first episode when the two drug dealers were attacking Bill. Although everyone advised her to stay out of it, she felt is necessary to help (Ball, 2008<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 200%; margin-top: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in; vertical-align: super;">2 ). Sookie’s emotionality tends to be relatively calm considering all the situations that she deals with; she is not one to overreact in any situation and acts in order to keep everyone that she cares for safe (Huntington, 2011). As previously discussed, Sookie tends to act in a way that is socially desirable. She is able to act in ways that are in line with people’s expectations. However, she does tend to shy away from situations in which she is isolated with people that she is not familiar with where there is a dangerous stimulus present (Huntington, 2011). Lastly, Sookie’s impulsivity tends to be in line with wanted to help others in a way that it very courageous and selfless. She tends to put others before herself and acts in much the same manner (Huntington, 2011).

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 200%; margin-top: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">In this way, Sookie embodies much of the theoretical constructs that support the biological aspect of personality. She has an overwhelming ability that was passed down to her genetically through her family. It is this genetic ability that shapes many of the decisions that she makes and thus contributes to her personality.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Discussion **

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Sookie's personality although heard enough to categorize already, becomes even harder due to her superhuman ability. This ability has been a positive addition to her life because she is able to experience much more than a normal human would. She is able to use her ability to help people and to make decisions based on the extra information she gains from her ability. In this way, it is hard to categorize her personality since there is an extra factor to take into consideration, one that does not easily fit into a category. The above perspectives are the easiest to use to help describe Sookie's personality. Because of the nature of her lifestyle in conjunction with her ability, the experiences that she has are unparalleled and her decisions often rely very heavily on what is going on around her. Also, her ability is entirely genetic and that ability helps to shape the ways in which she interacts with others and the ways that she lives her life.

1 Ball, A. (2008). Escape From Dragon House. A. Ball. //True Blood.// HBO. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; vertical-align: super;">2 Ball, A. (2008). Strange Love. A. Ball. //True Blood.// HBO. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Huntington, A (2011). Chapter 5 Day 1: Biological Aspects of Perosnlity [2,5,6]. Retreived from: [|HuskyCT] <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Huntington, A (2011). Chapter 10 Day 1: Person-Situation Interactionist Aspects of Personality [3,4,5]. Retrieved from: [|HuskyCT]
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