What’s Your Character’s Type? Part II: What the Enneagram Reveals about (More) Characters' Personalities

Photo by Miguel Bruna on Unsplash

This post continues from this one, in which we looked at the Enneagram types of Damon, Denise, and Kyle, three of the main characters in my novel, The Power Club. In this post, we’ll reveal the Enneagram numbers of the remaining members of the PC--Vee, Danner, and Ali--plus one.

The Enneagram is an ancient concept which categorizes a person’s traits, strengths, and weaknesses into one of nine interconnected numbers. These numbers, scholars claim, can reveal a lot about your inner drives and fears, as well as how you behave in situations of stress and growth. (See, for example, the bibliography at the end of the previous post.)

The Enneagram is also useful, I’ve found, for uncovering the inner drives, fears, etc., of fictional characters—whether you are a writer or a fan. For the most part, I already knew the inner drives and motivations of the PC members—or I thought I did. The Enneagram has helped me look at certain choices the characters make in a new way.

More information on the Enneagram can be found at the Enneagram Institute, from whence came the quotes below which describe each type.

Vee = Seven (The Enthusiast)

With the power of super-speed, Vee lives life by literally running from one thing to the next. He is “extroverted, optimistic, versatile, and spontaneous,” but he can also become “overextended, scattered, and undisciplined.” As the original leader of The Power Club, he decides to cancel a workout session for no other reason than to watch something on TV; however, he neglects to inform the club’s newest member, Damon, of the cancellation. Alone, Damon is ambushed by his enemy from school, Calvin.

Vee feels truly bad about the consequences of his actions, but this doesn’t stop him from making similar mistakes. Once Damon is elected leader, Vee becomes “perfectionistic and critical” of every mistake Damon makes. In part, this is because Vee thinks of PC as his club and resents Damon for intruding. However, Vee’s basic fear “of being deprived and in pain” forces him to keep these tendencies in check for now. If he gets kicked out of the PC, Vee fears the pain would be more than he can bear.

Because of his sister Denise’s concern for his safety, Vee misses out on “a worthwhile experience,” which causes him to become ever more resentful towards Damon, as we will see in the second book. At his best, though, Vee is more focused and able to do what is required of him to help the others survive.

Danner = Eight (The Challenger)

Danner’s ability to grow to as large as 30 feet exemplifies his personality as an Eight: “self-confident, strong, and assertive” as well as “egocentric and domineering.” At school, Danner serves as a crossing guard, a position of authority he relishes. Typical of Eights, he loves to control his environment and the people in it. When Damon resists his authority, Danner becomes temperamental. This leads him to make a choice he later regrets (including fighting his former best friend, Kyle) and he goes to great lengths to pay off the debt he has created for himself. Losing self-control, to Danner, is the greatest weakness.

Still, Danner recognizes the good he did as a member of PC and takes it to the next level in the second book so he can “protect himself and others.” When this protection goes awry, he is forced into a truce with Damon and later saves Damon's life. Despite their mutual dislike, Danner readily thinks of himself as in charge and as a protector.

Ali = Three (The Achiever)

Ali, like Kyle, is a Three, but her Enneagram type is expressed in slightly different ways. Like Kyle, she is “assured, attractive, and charming” as well as “self-accepting and authentic.” But she is also competitive and needs to feel valuable. When the riot breaks out in the mall, Ali jumps right into the fight. Later, she loudly objects when Damon suggests her role in the group could be that of a mere lookout. In spite of that, she arrives late to the scene of the robbery and ends up acting as lookout anyway.

For Ali, feeling worthless is unacceptable, and this feeling can cause her to become “disengaged and apathetic.” Although she truly does not like lying to her parents about her PC activities, one reason she quits PC is because she feels relegated to a secondary role.

In the first book, she is still learning to use her power of flight and lacks confidence. By the second book, she exhibits much more control and daring. She plays a central role in The Safety Patrol, the school-sponsored club of powered kids. She becomes “cooperative and committed to others,” putting her life at risk to help the others out of a deadly situation. And she takes no b.s. from a would-be kidnapper.

And now the plus-one:

Calvin = Four (The Individualist)

It’s hard for me to think of “bad guy” Calvin as a Four because that’s the number I most identify with. But Calvin has a typical Four personality. He is “self-aware, sensitive, and reserved” but also “moody and self-conscious.” He feels “disdainful and exempt from ordinary ways of living.” He “has problems with melancholy, self-indulgence, and self-pity.” Fours can be withdrawn, and Calvin possesses a literal power to withdraw: He can create rifts into other dimensions and then hide in those dimensions or make others disappear into them.

From Damon’s perspective, Calvin is a villain. But Calvin sees himself as a victim who is misunderstood and who has been isolated because of the dangers of his powers. Because he has spent so much of his childhood apart from other kids, he feels he has “no identity or personal significance.” He “wants to express [himself] and [his] individuality,” but when he did so in the past, it resulted in a classmate disappearing forever. Calvin thinks it unfair that his own powers are singled out as too dangerous while other kids get to practice theirs and to make friends. In the meantime, he is looking for a “rescuer” and, by the end of the first book, believes he has found one.

If Calvin gets a chance to grow in different directions, he may embrace the positive aspects of being a Four: surrounding himself with beauty and “becoming more objective and principled,” but a lot depends on his ability to make positive choices from the challenges he faces.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at Enneagram types as expressed through the main characters in The Power Club. I enjoyed exploring the types and learning new things about each character. In some cases, motivations are revealed here for the first time—things they haven’t shared with Damon, through whose eyes the story unfolds.

In a few days, the second book in the series, The Secret Club, will be available. In it, we will meet new powered kids to interact with Damon and the rest. In a future post, we’ll uncover their Enneagram numbers, as well.