The realization of attitude in the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid - No.1”

Abstract

Abstract: Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid is regarded as a literary achievement with
significant appeal to children all over the world. The author constructs an “anti-hero” character, Greg
Heffley, whose humor arises from the language he uses to express his evaluations of himself and the
entities around him as a middle school student. This study investigates how “Attitude” language
(Martin & White, 2005) is used to construct the character of Greg Heffley. The results indicate that
he is the primary appraiser of these evaluations. His assessments are characterized by negative
Judgements of others’ capacity and negative Appreciations of objects and events. Regarding Affect,
the findings show that the expressions refer largely to Greg's own negative feelings. This study
demonstrates Jeff Kinney's success in applying the Attitude subsystem to character construction.
These findings may help readers better understand the character of Greg Heffley, as well as assist
writers in evaluating their own manuscripts through the Attitude subsystem.
Key words: Diary of a Wimpy Kid; appraisal theory; evaluative; attitude; humor.