Misunderstood

Countering Friday's prompt:

Sometimes a character's actions, reactions, and overall demeanor leads the reader into believing the character is antagonistic, or guilty of some dark act within the context of the story. This has been cliched in film and television, where the ugly, foul-tempered character turns out to be a hero finally (and the heroism usually results in the character's injury or death!).

However, writing your character as being misunderstood can be a powerful tool to build sympathy for him or her (or it), which is why the technique is used so often. One key is to do it subtly, without beating your reader about the head and neck area with stereotypical villain characteristics like the scar, the taciturn manner, the limp, etc. Another option is to write the character as being misunderstood in terms of something other than good and evil. For example, a character may be misunderstood as unintelligent, or cruel, or as a bully.

Your task for this prompt is to write a scene where it become obvious - gradually, it should dawn on the reader rather than surprising him or her - that a character is misunderstood.

Good luck.

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