Fours are self-aware and sensitive. They are creative, honest, and personal, but can also be moody and self-conscious. They can withhold themselves from others due to feeling defective and vulnerable; they can also feel disdainful and exempt from ordinary ways of living. They typically have problems with self-indulgence and self-pity.
Fours maintain their identity by seeing themselves as fundamentally different from others. They often see themselves as uniquely talented, possessing special, one-of-a-kind gifts, but also as uniquely disadvantaged and flawed.
Enneagram 4w3s want a strong and well-defined sense of identity. They fear being or feeling insignificant. And while they often feel different from others, they don’t want to be alone: they may feel self-conscious or socially awkward, but they deeply wish to connect with people who understand them and their feelings (if such validation remains out of reach, fours begin to build their identity around how unlike everyone else they are).
Part One || The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Enneagram
Sejanus Plinth
Type One || 1w2 || 146
Type One:
Sejanus is motivated by his desire for Goodness, in the moral sense. His ethical integrity is at the forefront of his personality, and is the be all and end all of all his decisions and relationships.
Ones are highly principled and decisive when dealing with moral quandaries, and they seek out a sense of purpose
Sejanus resents his father, his classmates, and the Capitol on the whole for decisions that are at odds with his own ideals, and refuses to let that go unnoticed; at all times, the most important thing for him is to stand up for what he believes is right and just.
Type Four:
Fours tend towards melancholia. They can be explosive and sensitive, especially when circumstances challenge their sense of identity.
Sejanus has a habit of self-pity, however justified it might be, and wears his emotions blatantly on his sleeve. He is not precious about being seen as flawed, but is absolute about being authentic and true to himself (and his ideals).
Type Six
Sejanus is committed to both his goals and his friends - right to the bitter end. He will only momentarily stray from his stubbornly held beliefs when cornered by Coriolanus, his closest, and perhaps only, friend.
He desires material and emotional security for himself and his loved ones, and we only see him falter when their safety and his own is compromised - when his actions backfire and he comes face to face with the chaos in his wake.
Thanks for reading! I intend on making more of these as the mood strikes me - particularly Coriolanus and Lucy Gray, and I might try my hand at the main trilogy too (as soon as I finish my reread)!
These posts solely reflect my personal interpretation of these characters based on both the books and the films, if you would type them differently, I’d love to hear your perspective!
I used the Enneagram Institute webpage for type descriptions to make my initial decisions for this post, so for more information on Enneagram types in general, I can recommend their site!
Sketched in intellectual artistry, I see a person whose strength lies in staying true to themselves. I see the person standing in front of me offering up who they are and hoping so intensely that others will just take them as they come. You, like the finest canvas, stretch your arms out and reach for identity. This unique ability to carve yourself out of nothingness leaves you met with awe as those around you try so desperately to match your authenticity.
Prone to isolation and melancholy, others may see you as a brooding poet, though I know that your depth can only be compared to the ocean, or, more dramatically, perhaps, to that of an unbelievably large stage. But don’t let others tell you that your sensitivity is too much. You are never “too much.”
In your quest to master the difficult, you must remember that not everyone else will want to do the same, and that that’s OK. This challenge to yourself then becomes yet another way that you stand out among the crowd.
Fashioned from buttons and thread, you hold your creations to the sky and demand that others recognize your efforts. You do not require that they like it because you know that their taste is not yours, but it’s alright to be upset from time-to-time when you find out that you’re not always for others.
You follow your interests and your passions because you know that they will lead you where you need to go. And it is admirable, my little pan pastel, that you never want to stop achieving, but there will come a point where you are going to want to learn to be happy where you are.
Painted in the balance between logic and emotion, you drip honesty from your lash-line like teardrops. Like a good rubbing, you’ve made more of an impact in me than you know, and I, for one, cannot wait to continue watching you grow.
Love, your biggest fan,
r.h.
P.S. Believe in what you need to create, and don’t let other people influence that creativity because they will always want to impose their thoughts onto yours. But don’t make those thoughts yours.
It’s an interesting dynamic. I fear engagement and am tempted to either assimilate or withdraw. At the same time, I desire engagement as a sign of the solidity of my own faith, if I am able to take input from all sorts of people and still hold fast to my own. I don’t feel I can complete until I “arrive” at a stage where I can, and I hesitate to share any of this in the process.
I hesitate because I can’t tell you with surety which way I’ll sway. I hesitate because parts of me feel childish, even idiotic. Too lost to know anything worth knowing, too lost in her own head to be relatable or understandable. Maybe it’s the four in me being dramatic. Lots of people embark on their own journey to know. Lots of people don’t. Lots of people share their journey to know. Lots of people don’t. Who is to say anyone is better for being in one camp or the other? At the end of the day, we are all humans who are finite in our ability to know and be sure of things.
The hem of its garment.” --Stephen Crane, “’Truth’, said a traveler”
Type Two, the Helper: ”Will it come like a change in the weather?
Will its greeting be courteous or rough?
Will it alter my life altogether?
O tell me the truth about love.” -- W. H. Auden, “Tell me the truth about love”
Type Three, the Achiever: ”Oh Fame!—if I e'er took delight in thy praises,
'Twas less for the sake of thy high-sounding phrases,
Than to see the bright eyes of the dear one discover,
She thought that I was not unworthy to love her.” --George Gordon Byron, “To Youth”
Type Four, the Individualist: “The lamp said,
‘Four o'clock,
Here is the number on the door.
Memory!
You have the key,
The little lamp spreads a ring on the stair,
Mount.
The bed is open; the tooth-brush hangs on the wall,
Put your shoes at the door, sleep, prepare for life.’
The last twist of the knife.” --T. S. Eliot, “Rhapsody on a Windy Night”
Type Five, the Investigator: “’Faith’ is a fine invention
For Gentlemen who see!
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency!” --Emily Dickenson, “‘Faith’ is a fine invention (202)”
Type Six, the Loyalist: “For I have known them all already, known them all:—
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons” --T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
Type Seven, the Enthusiast: “And the days are not full enough
And the nights are not full enough
And life slips by like a field mouse
Not shaking the grass” --Ezra Pound, “And the days are not full enough”
Type Eight, the Challenger: “It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.” --William Ernest Henley, “Invictus”
Type Nine, the Peacemaker: “Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.” --Robert Frost, “Mending Wall”
(Note for Fives: I originally wanted to use “Do I dare/Disturb the universe?/In a minute there is time/For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse,” from Eliot’s Prufrock for you guys, but I already had two other Eliot poems picked out, and I felt like three Eliot quotes would be too much.)
