Girls' literature is filled with strong, smart, brave, and adventurous girls and women. For my generation, it was Anne of Green Gables, Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, Cherry Ames, Vicky Barr, and many others. I'm sure there are many others that have come along as well.
As an adult, I've strongly identified with (the late) Sue Grafton's character Kinsey Millhone as being a very independent, self-sufficient single woman.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/2018 07:42PM by summer.
When I was little, I adored Jo March, from "Little Women." She was independent, creative, had little patience for silly, fussy rules - just like me.
As an adult, like summer, I have cherished Kinsey Milhone. I also admire Patricia Cornwell's character of Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Kay is tough and thoroughly cerebral, though she loves the people she allows to get through to her.
Since I have always been a serious reader, book characters sometimes seem more like friends or distant relatives to me.
As a kid i looked up to Little Women's Marmee as a role model of a good mother, also Heidi's grandfather and grandmamma. I liked Sara of The little Princess. Loved Laura Ingalls and Ma Ingalls. These people were like friends to me. I would feel drawn -like i missed them- to one or the other and then would reread the stories. I also loved the resourcefulness and determination of Karana of Island of the Blue Dolphins. Learned about being not prejudiced by reading The Cay, a story of a blind white boy and how a black man saves his life, and how he changes his views of people when i was in gr. 6. By reading and rereading them many classic books probably helped me in wways i may not even understand. I still remember a quote by Loisa Alcott in Little Men: We are raising children, not apples or something like that that taught me about how child rearing worked- what was important was what the child learned, not how the house, yard, orchard looked. Like letting our son help build the fence in the backyard even tho it may not have been as perfect, because we were raising him, not fences.
Yup, lots of books assisted me in my life. Also biographies like: The Von Trapp Family Singers, the story, told by Maria Von Trapp, of how the family worked played loved and learned together. Read that over and over again.
For some reason, even as a little kid, I understood the difference between reality and fiction. Maybe because fiction was always too good, to wonderful, too perfect and reality was rather boring and flawed. So I think I concluded it was impossible to be as good as fictional characters. Modeling myself after them would be dooming myself to failure.
You make a good point. As i have gotten older i have realized more and more that i can not copy these characters in real life and that i am not these characters.
Shinehah Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Not sure if these count because as I was growing > up most everyone told me they were real: Lehi, > Nephi, Alma, Ammon, Mormon, Moroni and etc.
Hell i'm still trying to deprogram those guys from being real in my brain. Watched tons of cartoons with those characters as well.
In the 1960s, dedicated followers of Ayn Rand--"Objectivists"--were supposed to pattern their lives after John Galt, the fictional hero of Ms. Rand's 1,080-page novel "Atlas Shrugged."
I don't remember much of a plot or why so many people thought it was fantastic. I love to read, and I have pretty wide-ranging tastes - but Ayn Rand just onesn't one of them.
I've still got my hardcover edition and tried to read it again a few years ago--couldn't get past the first few pages. Even when I did read it straight through back in the 1960s, I thought it was just a bit tedious and pedantic. But some people were really hooked on it, and completely idolized Ms. Rand and Mr. Galt--leading to the strange phenomenon of a full-blown cult, theoretically based on the nobility of the individual. I guess it takes all kinds. And though I haven't looked at it lately, I remember her first novel--"We the Living"--had more going for it.
Yes. For my father it was the Lone Ranger. But for me it's Doctor Who(old school), Superheros, James West(James Conrad version), James Bond, Star Trek, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jack Ryan. I've got a lot of them so I often lose count!!
Anonymous 2 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Yes. For my father it was the Lone Ranger. But for > me it's Doctor Who(old school), Superheros, James > West(James Conrad version), James Bond, Star Trek, > Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jack Ryan. I've got a > lot of them so I often lose count!!
It's all about the story of anakin skywalker. I can sort of relate to that guy. Couldn't relate to luke at all except when he became a grumpy old man on an island.