Thursday, March 6, 2008

Booking Through Thursday - Heroes

Here's today's BTT question:

You should have seen this one coming … Who is your favorite Male lead character? And why?

I didn't get a chance to play last week when the question was easier for me. I tend to read a lot of novels with female leads. As a matter of fact, my first real connection to reading was Nancy Drew. I just wanted to be her growing up.

Anyway, a male lead character is harder because I don't tend to identify with the men in the stories as much as the women. There are a few characters that do come to mind:

  • Quoyle from The Shipping News - He's almost the anti-hero because he doesn't really fit the stereotype of a male hero. Maybe that's why I like him so much. He was human and showed real human emotions. I ended up admiring him for the choices he'd made in the story.
  • Henry from The Time Traveler's Wife - He is the same kind of sympathetic male character. I may be putting him on the list because I read the book so recently. I found him to be an intriguing and likable character. I was really drawn in to his emotional life in the story.
  • Atticus Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird - This was the first time where I realized that people can change things in our society. I read this one in junior high, and my strongest reading memory is thinking how brave Atticus was and how much I wanted to meet men like that in my life. It was almost like I wanted to find men who had that strength of their convictions. It really changed how I viewed people.
  • the father in The Wall by Eve Bunting - Today was "Thinking Thursday" at my school. We were talking to the kids about books that make us think. This is the book I always come back to. It's the book that I can't read to kids without crying. The father is unnamed but he's everyman. He's the man who takes his son to the Vietnam Wall to find his own father's name. Somehow, this man touches something essential in my soul and personifies the effects of war in a very human way.
I didn't go for some obvious choices like Hamlet and Macbeth. While I love Shakespeare, these are the male characters who changed something essential in me as I was reading about them. Who are your heroes? Any thoughts on mine?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I haven't read any of them, except To Kill A Mockingbird, though I have been wanting to read The Time-Traveler's Wife for a while now. Atticus was a great guy - I guess I didn't think of him because I haven't read the book in years.

Anonymous said...

I think Henry's a great character but I could live with all that uncertainty.

Tara @ Tales of a Book Addict said...

I agree with you in regards to getting to know the characters in series' better :-) Some of them kind of become almost like close friends!

I liked your list, the only book I've read is "To Kill a Mockingbird" and I agree with your assessment of Atticus!

gautami tripathy said...

I find Henry and Atticus Finch mentioned in a few blogs.

Here is my BTT post!

jlshall said...

Yes, I had the same feelings about Atticus - don't know how I managed to leave him off my list. And the Time-Traveler's Wife is on my list of books to read this year, so I'm looking forward to meeting Henry.

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

I have The Shipping News on my TBR shelf. I saw the movie years ago but remember very little about it. I had just had surgery and was a little doped up. :) I loved Henry and look forward to seeing how he is portrayed by Eric Bana (hello!!)

BookGal said...

Aria - I reallt enjoyed The Time Traveler's Wife.

Table Talk - I think that's why I liked the character so much because he did deal with all that uncertainty.

Guatami - Atticus was mentioned in a number of posts. I was surprised.

jlshall - It is a very interesting book.

Trish - I had no idea it was being made into a movie. I wonder how it will be. I liked the book of Atonement but thought the movie was flat.