Quantification of character and plot in contemporary fiction

During the summer of 2013, a group of high school Juniors from Newburgh Free Academy joined the program NetSci High (2013-2014) and had the opportunity to spend ten days at Boston University to learn more about network science. While there, the students learned about what networks are, how they are used, and why they are important. Consequently, they planned to combine a shared interest of literature and network analysis to explore contemporary fiction. After much discussion and the direction from Mrs. Sheetz, their mentor from the Network Science Center at West Point, the students endeavored to develop a model for a character and plot analysis of the novel Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling. Character significance would be quantified through network metrics such as betweenness and degree centrality. Additionally, temporal and spatial visualizations of the character interactions would facilitate the analysis. The team, consisting of Ugwuogo Onwuka, Jr., Ivette Pineda, Tess Stepakoff, and indirectly Mrs. Sheetz, began in September 2013 after deciding on the popular novel. The objective of the research was to determine character centrality as well as overall network complexity in this contemporary novel.