30 Days of Book Discussion: Day 25

A character who you can relate to the most

The first character that comes to mind is Katniss from The Hunger Games, although we have pretty much nothing in common.  But I think Suzanne Collins just wrote an amazing character.  Katniss's thoughts and way of thinking feel very natural to me, and she is a character who is easy to sympathize with.  I am also strongly impacted by the dystopian nature of the novel.  I am instantly attracted to characters who are set in a world that is supposed to be utopian but where they have enough presence of mind to see that there could be cracks in the veneer of perfection that is supposed to be there.  I find that compelling and it's what attracts me to dystopian novels in general.

I have to admit that I can't stand main characters who are very flawed.  The stories that I connect to most have a protagonist who has good qualities and is essentially what I consider to be a "good person," people who have a sense of right and wrong and who try to do the right thing.  Usually if I really like a movie it's because the main character was valiant in some way that I admired.  I know that most people probably feel the same way... I just think that maybe the degree to which I like a movie is very heavily influenced by the admirability of the main character.

I was telling my sister the other day about an awful movie that I watched on Netflix.  The main character in this movie was immature, manipulative, conceited, dishonest, and arrogant.  I hated her and I hated the movie.  But... I watched the whole thing because it had pretty dresses.  I have a weakness, okay!  I like pretty dresses, shut up.  I can like those.  If you're going to write a movie about abhorrent characters, you better have some good costuming.

So what about you?  What characters do you relate to?