What makes for a good protagonist in fiction? Is a good protagonist necessarily synonymous with a good hero? If not, then what's the difference? And who are some of your favorite protagonists in fiction?
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Protagonists
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 Violanthe |
Protagonists |
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Star Fleet Admiral
Posts: 413 (06/17/09 12:23:00) Starship Captain |
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Custer1 |
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Star Fleet Admiral
Posts: 5247 (06/17/09 14:18:20) Man of Tomorrow |
Well, we have to start with a mention of Hiro Protagonist from Snow
Crash by Neal Stephenson, of course...
It all depends how one defines heroes and protagonists; the difference is a bit subtle... and "a hero" is different from "the hero" I'd say. Um, I think I'll wait and see who other people suggest!      |
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ljim2000 |
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Star Fleet Admiral
Posts: 5334 (06/17/09 21:40:24) Simulacrum Cretin |
Great question Vio! I intend to revisit this thread and really approach it with some thought.
Off the top of my head right now, I'd say a good protagonist is somebody I can identify with, so not necessarily a "hero" at all. However, the identifying may be more powerful when the protagonist is somebody (or something!) that we don't necessarily automatically think of as "alike" to ourselves. For instance, for me, Pyanfar in C.J. Cherryh's Pride of Chanur is somebody I can identify with even though she is of a different gender and species and social class than myself. Her universal feeling sentient traits (I would say "humanity" but she's not human at all!) is something I can relate to despite and in fact even somewhat because of these differences. |
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AirPrang |
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Starsip Commander
Posts: 83 (06/18/09 15:02:14) |
Hrm... I've not really thought about this before. Someone who I can identify with (as per Jim's post above) but also someone who I find interesting or
sufficiently convincing as a character that I care about what will happen to them or wonder what they'll do next - even if I don't necessarily identify
with them.
An example from a favourite book, Bester's Tiger! Tiger!, is Gully Foyle (hero) who is endlessly fascinating, but not someone I identify with - unlike, say, sidekick Jisbella McQueen, and other secondary characters Robin Wednesday, Saul Dagenham or even Yang-Yeovil. Thinking back, there's a number of instances where I identify more with the 'second banana' characters as opposed to the heroes ie sidekick Miss Schlupe (sp?) to hero Jan Darzek (Lloyd Biggle Jr's Dark series). Thinking, thinking... |
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