In Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., I think characterization is a big part in it. Both indirect and direct characterization were used, examples being "On the television screen were ballerinas." on page 209 and "a siren was going off in his head." on page 211 of direct characterization, because they tell you what's going on instead of showing you and indirect characterization would be on page 211 when Vonnegut writes "She must have been extraordinarily beautiful, because the mask she wore was hideous. And it was easy to see that she was the strongest and most graceful of all the dancers, for her handicap bags were as big as those worn by two- hundred pound men." This is indirect because you can picture her standing there with a hideous mask on and a huge heavy bag on her shoulders as a handicap. Another example would be "Clanking, clownish, and huge, Harrison stood" because it gives you an image in your head of his appearance.
I think characterization was important in this story because you had to have all the direct things in there to know that Hazel and George were watching ballerinas and what the sounds were like in George's head without going too deep into their thoughts and all of the indirect so that you can picture the story in your head and make inferences and connections that otherwise you wouldn't have made. An example for me would be when on page 214, Diana Moon Glampers came in and shot with perfect aim at Harrison and his "empress", I immediately thought of Latin class. Yes, Latin class. This is because it connects to mythology, Diana was the goddess of the hunt and the moon and this shows her shooting with perfect aim and has "moon" in her name. Pretty cool, right? Anyways, that's my literary element for you:)
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