I despise a story with weak characters. No matter how many car races or love-stories the author throws in, a novel is boring unless it centers around vivid, interesting characters who are changing and growing in unexpected ways to respond to their situations--or sometimes resisting change and growth, like Scarlett O'Hara in GONE WITH THE WIND. I loved Katniss Everdeen in HUNGER GAMES for defying the Capitol to protect her sister. Though mostly I hated Bella Swan in TWILIGHT for being so passive and whiny, at least she had the guts to love a vampire.
Young adult literature is so particularly compelling partly because kids by their very nature are always changing and growing and on cusp of such critically important changes. They are constantly being forced to make choices about their own characters. As GraceAnne diCandido, my literature instructor at Rutgers used to put it, the central question of a young adult novel is "Who am I and what am I going to do about it?"
How do you create your own unforgettable characters? Or is there a character in recent literature that you find especially compelling?
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
The Role of Character
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For me, the character that comes immediately to mind is Auggie in WONDER. What an incredible boy and what an incredibly compelling character. Actually, every character in Wonder felt compelling to me. R. J. Palacio did such an amazing job of making her characters real! (Can you tell I'm a huge WONDER fan? :o) )
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, Ariel. I'm a character lover. I love books that make me sorry to finish because I want to spend more time with that character. Or two characters.
ReplyDeleteA couple of recent reads with great main characters are Stephanie Blake's THE MARBLE QUEEN and ELEANOR & PARK by Rainbow Rowell.
Judy, I just finished ELEANOR & PARK last night and I loved it! Brianna, I also loved WONDER. Though I would have preferred to enter into fewer characters' heads.
ReplyDeleteMy newest favorite main character is Marcelo in MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD by Francisco X. Stork.
ReplyDeleteCreating characters is so hard!! Reading THE BOOK THIEF is like a taking a masterclass on characterization. Every character, no matter how minor has something memorable about them. I think that's what I love most about the book. Liesel and Rudy...the Hubermanns...the mayor's wife...great characters enrich your reading experience and make you feel the story! But how to do it? It's such a process...to make characters REAL and not caricatures.
ReplyDeleteRobin, I usually base characters on people I know. I borrow bits and pieces from here and there to make them seem real. Cornelia Funke does an interesting exploration of this and its possible consequences in INKDEATH.
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