I found a juicy question for this morning for book lovers. Though it ended up being a bit more complicated than I thought it would be…
If you could live the life of any fictional character, which character would it be?
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I skipped over the first character that came to mind and pondered instead on Anne Elliot from Jane Austen’s Persuasion. I love that book and have read it a good seven or eight times. With my birth place in my family I really identify with the crap she had to put up with. But what I love about the book is that in the end she came into her own.
Be that as it may, I finally settled on my first choice, Jean Louise “Scout” Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I thought at first I might have chosen her character for sentimental reasons. Her growing up years in a small town, her wise father, her close relationship with her brother… But I had to factor in something else.
I just read (though I swore I wouldn’t) Go Set a Watchman, Lee’s book that was published a couple years ago. Truth be told, I didn’t particularly warm up to it. I found it boring and slow — until the last 50 pages or so when the focus of the book became far more apparent.
The book portrays a 26-year-old Scout coming back home from New York where she has to think through what she learned as a child in Maycomb. She is shocked at how her town and the people she loves has changed. Her immersion in the civil unrest that was going on took her from that idyllic little girl to a very complicated woman. I read those last 50 pages and ended up with a lot of questions. I can’t help wondering what I would have learned from Scout’s life…
How about you? Is there a fictional character in whose shoes you would have liked to walk?
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Picture Source:
Persuasion — Rebekah’s Book Reviews
To Kill a Mockingbird — Animalia Life
Go Set a Watchman — Wired
Impromptu Promptlings 
My very first thought is Scarlett O’Hara. I’ve often been called a bitch and I hate that folks see Scarlett that way. She truly has her faults, but she really wants her independence – something not encouraged back then or even today for many women.
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She was a pretty complicated heroine. That fascinated me about her. A very well-written character!
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How do folks come up with these great answers?
Once upon a time – when youthful idealism flooded through my veins – I’d have chosen a chest-heaving romantic heroine of Jane Austin’s, or even one of the Bronte’s, no matter how tragic. The idea dying from consumption wouldn’t have bothered me, as long as I could have experienced One Great Romance – I’d have to die before the marriage took place, though – all that domestic bliss is a bit too messy for me.
These days I’d rather be Mowgli, from Jungle book, or any character who climbs trees.
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LMBO! You’d make a terrific Mowgli! You’re such a nature girl. 😀
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Gabriel Oak, Far From the Madding Crowd.
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You know, I think I saw a movie version of that with Julie Christie, but have never read it.
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It’s a super book, and the movie with Julie Christie was good too. Recently they made a remake, which I thought was excellent. Worth seeing! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCm1XNVD_0c
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Thanks! I’ll check it out.
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Interesting question in part because the story that is told entails some kind of conflict or crisis, so to want to live that life is to “want” to live through that conflict or crisis. So do I want to accidently shoot someone on a beach as in Camus’ The Stranger? Or endure the Holocaust or grow up in a brutal orphanage? What we focus on is the quality of the character’s makeup of which we would like to emulate, but that would be a different question.
But to answer the question on the fly, I would have to say Sal Paradise from Kerouac’s “On the Road.”
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That’s a very good observation. Deep thought! And you’re right. (You know, believe it or not I’ve never read anything by him — that I know of.)
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i wouldn’t call him a great writer, but he was able to capture the mood or zeitgeist of subculture from the late fifties and sixities, alienated and drifting from the conventional modes of living.
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Guess I’m going to have to do some research on him. Did he write a short story once about a man writing a paper that the breeze blew out of his apartment window. do you know?
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Scout is a FAB answer! Oh my, what a question! At the moment I can’t get past Matilda, from the Roald Dahl book of the same name. Or Lucy, from CS Lewis, ‘Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe’. I’m sure there’s a ‘better’ answer, but I can’t find it immediately. It’s not that there aren’t lots of wonderful characters, it’s just I’m not sure I’d want their lives – which are often pretty tough!!! I reckon if I had the choice I’d opt for some mystery and magic and the experience of a world/life way beyond the boundaries of my own. Otherwise, I’m quite happy with my own 🙂 Fab questions – thanks! xx
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Lucy. Brave girl, that one! Roald Dahl is another author I’ve never read. So many books, so little time!
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I’ll play along. I’m Maria, Sound of Music. I love that lightness and music in the hills. Comment about Harper Lee. I don’t really know what she was trying to accomplish with Go Set a Watchman. It was a real disappointment to me.
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What a courageous woman she was, wasn’t she? I guess those last few pages made me realized I’d never stopped and thought about how both sides of the civil rights movement had issues. And it also made me wonder about the difficulties some of the people of color in the south may have faced in the changing order of things. Much like they did after the emancipation proclamation. But I was disappointed in the book, too.
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I haven’t read it and probably won’t. I love To Kill A Mockingbird very much, and it does seem unfair to read what was basically an early draft that she didn’t intend to publish. Selfishly, I don’t want TKAM tainted for me!
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I know what you mean. Atticus Finch has always been one of my storybook heroes.
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Oh boy, this is a challenge! I know!!!! Agnes (I had to google her name ) from Despicable Me. She’s oh so cute, so wonderfully child-like, trusting, full of beans 🙂 There. What do you make of that ?
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Sounds just like the Raili I know! 😉
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Lol !!!
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What??? 😉
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Jo from Little Women, hands down! True love in marriage, healthy children, talent for writing, and mistress of her own school.
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Another great character I forgot about! Hm… Maybe I should have thought it through a bit longer! 🙂
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Miss Marple! All that observing and some traveling and then settling down with my garden and knitting in my dotage. And getting to have tea every day. I want to move to England for scones, crumpets and biscuits brought in on a silver tray and served by the fire 🙂
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Well she certainly had an interesting life! And that scones and tea sounds like the perfect compliment to a busy consulting detective. We all need our down time! 😀
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What a difficult question. I think I’d like to be Bob Dylan in his biography – Chronicles – or is that cheating?
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Yep! that’s cheating! You should know better. You are a teacher!!! 😉
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Fascinating question, Calen. Scarlet O’Hara. I identify with her drive and determination and never-giving-up spirit. I do hope that I would figure out what really matters long before she does…but I guess that’s not how this would work…you have to take the character faults and all. OK. But I’ll stick with Scarlet. She does realize the strength of Melanie and that although it is a different strength, it is as strong a strength and spirit as Scarlet’s. That’s my most favorite character trait of Scarlet.
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Oh! Good choice! I’d forgotten about her. LOVED what you said about Melanie. That is so true.
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