Everyday Canvas

Favorite Fictional Characters

Prompt: Fictional Characters.

Write about fictional characters in general and/or write about who or what your favorite fictional characters are and why you picked them.

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My favorite fictional character as a child was Heidi, a novel in a series of stories about a girl who lived in the Alps. Peter was her friend and an important element in the story. Thinking back to it, I liked Heidi because of her optimism, resilience, and her talent of bringing out the best in everyone around her, as the novel explores the themes of family, friendship, being true to oneself, and the healing power of nature.

Come to think of it, in my older years up to now, I never latched on to a character in fiction as a favorite, but rather I had and have favorite stories and plots.

Yet, I still want to talk about some of the fictional characters from literature, film, and TV who are loved by most of the readers and viewers. Some of these most popular characters do not appeal to me as I see them as extremely self-righteous, such as Atticus Finch, Sherlock Holmes, and Elizabeth Bennet. As popular as he is, I am not into Hannibal Lecter either, even though he may serve as a fascinating character study in the exploration of evil. If I were to like a criminal, I'd go with Arsene Lupin, though. At least, Arsene Lupin was a gentle thief and he was extremely entertaining when I read his adventures while I was a young adult, and no, thank you, I won't read him ever again.

If I were to like any popular characters from literature and the movies, after most of the Shakespeare's characters, I would probably pick Harry Potter characters, in spite of all the hoopla. I think they were funny and fallible and since most of them were children, there was hope they would improve.

Who I like or not has nothing to do with literature itself. My reasons, I suspect, may be personal and are shaped by any individual character's role within the story.


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