Your Most Influential Book Character?

[bluegreenturtle]

I was finishing up a book tonight and lamenting the fact that the story ending also meant the end of my relationship with the fascinating characters and I was thinking about how deeply a fictional character can effect our lives. What characters have effected your way of thinking/being/feeling or just stuck with throughout the years?

[MamaBug]

The girls from from Little Women. I read this book at least once a year. I love it still. I have tried to be strong like Jo, motherly like Meg, girly like Amy and kind and good like Beth. I love these women and the life they lead in the books, I wished so much that I could have grown up with them.

[JennyClaire]

[QUOTE=bluegreenturtle]I was finishing up a book tonight and lamenting the fact that the story ending also meant the end of my relationship with the fascinating charactersQUOTE]

What is the book?

I liked the main character in Winslow in Love , by Kevin Canty, because he is an fat, washed up, alcoholic poet who totally accepted himself because he knew that change was impossible -- he'd tried. In a weird way, this guy has become my rolemodel -- there are so many things about myself (and life) that I can't change, and wouldn't it be wonderful to REALLY accept them? A great book, by the way!

[bluegreenturtle]

I have to check that one out JennyClaire----I also loved Little Women MamaBug

I used to be a reading fanatic---hugo, o'henry, wilde, and any strong poetry were irresistible . Than I got pregnant and something happened to my brain. Suddenly I didn't care about literature.... all I wanted to read was my compleat mother mags and books about my big ol belly and having babies

However it was the Red Tent(probably heard of this one ) This was my full scale reintroduction into fiction and it was like nothing I had read before.... I loved it

Then Papillon---an autobiography of a french prisoner in the early part of the last century, chronicling his life in prison and his many escapes...very moving and stunning---I think I fell in love with him

The one I just finished is a just a silly old novel of love and arms written in the 40's and based in the middle ages---Sir Pagan by Henry Colyton---but I miss the characters already

Finishing the last one and getting up immediatly to look for something new to get lost in made me realize how these fictional people so strongly shape our
very non-fictional lives.

[JennyClaire]

Originally Posted by bluegreenturtle

However it was the Red Tent(probably heard of this one ) This was my full scale reintroduction into fiction and it was like nothing I had read before.... I loved it

I read this one with a book club. It was also a great discussion book for women of all ages (the 2 men stayed home :LOL )

Originally Posted by bluegreenturtle

Then Papillon---an autobiography of a french prisoner in the early part of the last century, chronicling his life in prison and his many escapes...very moving and stunning---I think I fell in love with him

Papillon sounds interesting. Is it the same Papillon that was made into the Steve McQueen (Dustin Hoffman?) movie in the 60s? I loved that!

Originally Posted by bluegreenturtle

Finishing the last one and getting up immediatly to look for something new to get lost in made me realize how these fictional people so strongly shape our
very non-fictional lives.

Yup - I don't know where (or what) I'd be without my books. I sometimes think fictional characters are the closest thing to rolemodels that I have.

[Divina]

Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables has endured as a role model for me throughout my life, since I first read the book when I was, oh, ten of eleven. I have the whole series, and there are a number of other characters I love. I even have conversations in my head with them! I'll do housework and be "talking" to Anne and Marilla ... okay, maybe I shouldn't have admitted that. The last one in the series, "Rilla of Ingelside", is about Anne's youngest daughter coming of age during WWI. It's a really wonderful book and gives a very good picture of the "home front" during that time.

There are other characters who have taught me and shaped me in different ways over the years, but Anne is the one that stands out, and has lasted the longest. I still admire her wholeheartedly.

[lisalou]

This will be a little creepy but Humbert Humbert from Lolita. We listened to it on tape with Jeremy Irons and it's like watching a train wreck you can't look away and it haunts you at the same time.

M from Proust. It really affected how I look at what love is and also how I look at books.

Alice from Alice in Wonderland. I so wanted to be her.

The main character from the Dark is Rising series. I can't remember his name now but I loved those books.

Milo from the Phantom Tollbooth and Danny from Danny Champion of the World. There was a lonliness about both of them that echoed so well in my childhood.

and Mme Bovary. Even though I have no sympathy for her b/c she made her own bed. I totally see how I could have fallen into the same trap in my life.

[wildmonkeys]

Gloria from the Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

BJ
Barney & Ben

[napless]

nak

Anne of Green Gables for me too! I'm actually rereading "Rilla of Ingleside" (for the gazillionth time) right now! I find it interesting that I find different things in these books at different ages. (I think this is the first time I've read "Rilla" since I've been a mom. I'm finding the chapters about sending the young men off to war heartrending. I know I didn't find that when I read the book as a teenager or younger woman.)

[zaksma]

The Awakening by Kate Chopin without a doubt. Reading it was so revolutionary to me at the time.

But I also LOVED Jane Eyre- I loved her strength of character especially given her early years. Jane inspired me to be strong of character even when it seemed impossible.

[nora--not a llama]

Originally Posted by Divina

Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables has endured as a role model for me throughout my life, since I first read the book when I was, oh, ten of eleven. I have the whole series, and there are a number of other characters I love. I even have conversations in my head with them! I'll do housework and be "talking" to Anne and Marilla ... okay, maybe I shouldn't have admitted that. The last one in the series, "Rilla of Ingelside", is about Anne's youngest daughter coming of age during WWI. It's a really wonderful book and gives a very good picture of the "home front" during that time.

There are other characters who have taught me and shaped me in different ways over the years, but Anne is the one that stands out, and has lasted the longest. I still admire her wholeheartedly.

ME TOO!!!!!!!!!!!! I have loved Anne since I was in the 5th grade. I think my favorite book in the series is Anne of the Island. But, I also love the part in Anne of Ingleside when one of Anne's children refer to the china dogs that sit in front of the fireplace as "God" and "My God." :LOL
I also really like Emily (another character from LM Montgomery).
I always thought when I was younger that if I had a daughter I would name her Emily Anne. But alas, my girl's daddies did not agree!

[JennyClaire]

Originally Posted by zaksma

But I also LOVED Jane Eyre- I loved her strength of character especially given her early years. Jane inspired me to be strong of character even when it seemed impossible.

Jane Eyre is one of my all-time favorite books (and characters). When I 1st read it (in HS) I remember feeling so bad for Jane because she wasn't "pretty," but in subsequent readings I am in awe of how smart and strong she is! My DD (13) has just read (and enjoyed) it, and we are looking forward to discussing it with my sister when she finishes.