Fear of change.
I'll be graduating from community collage in a few weeks, so I can say first hand that change is downright scary. You're life's been going along all normal when suddenly you see a turn up ahead and realize anything at all could be on the other side. Yikes!
A lot of story characters yearn for change, for adventure. They're desperate to know what's around the next bend. It's easy to see why those people make for great heroes. You don't have to prod them at all. They're raring to go. Just point them at the plot and stand back! (Taran the Assistant Pig Keeper, in Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles is one such character.) But there are plenty of protagonists who don't like change at all.
One of my favorites is Muggles from Carol Kendall's The Gammage Cup. Muggles rarely ventures an opinion because she hates to make waves. All she wants is for everyone around her to be safe and content, and as the story progresses, we see that she's willing to go to great lengths -even face banishment!- in order to protect her quiet little village.
People who wait for problems to come to them can be wonderfully interesting heroes. The stakes have to be high to push them into heroism, but once those quiet, unassuming character decide to act, you know they mean busyness.
Congratulations on your graduation! That's great! {BIG SMILE}
ReplyDeleteYes, change can be scary. It's exciting, but it's often a scary exciting. I do like characters who aren't afraid, like Taran in the early Chronicles on Prydain. Yet... by The High King, he's not quite as comfortable with it. I think his finally-found reticence adds a little depth there. {Smile}
(1 guess which series I finished re-reading a few weeks ago. {Smile, wink})
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
P.S. Still old enough to need approval. {Smile}
ReplyDeleteA.E.B.
I'm guessing the Prydain Chronicles. :) Do you always tear up when Fflewder Fflan burns his harp? I do. I have a hard time reading the last book at all, actually. (Sniff.) Sorry it took so long to reply. I've been a bit busy. :)
ReplyDeleteYes, I just finished the Prydain Chronicles. Between Fflewdder Fflan burning his harp and all the deaths, the last book is rough to get thru. I shed a few tears thru that one. {Smile}
ReplyDeleteI've been busy, too. It happens. {Smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
Have you ever read the Westmark Trilogy? Great series, but another total tear jerker. I think Lloyd Alexander enjoys making you like characters and then killing them off.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, I've read the Westmark/Beggar Queen trilogy. I happened to read them at the right time for them to shape my feelings about war and portrayal of madness particularly strongly. {Smile}
ReplyDeleteYes, I noticed how many of the characters don't make it in that one. I think fewer characters make than don't. I still love the trilogy. Like I said, I first encountered at the right time in life. {smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
I think Lloyd Alexander's war experienced really shaped his writing in general. He's careful not to glorify fighting, which makes his writing so much more realistic.
ReplyDelete