Why I Love Wednesdays…Child Characters
Mocha Girl Alexis from Reflections of a Bookaholic started a Wednesday Meme called Why I Love Wednesday. What is a Meme you ask? According to wikipedia…The term “Internet meme” refers to a catchphrase or concept that spreads rapidly from person to person via the Internet, largely through Internet-based email, blogs, forums, Imageboards, social networking sites and instant messaging. Basically, a topic from the meme host (Alexis) is posted on participating blogs with blog authors answering it on their site (here).
The topic this Wednesday is…Child Characters
This is a great one this week. There are so many child characters in books that I love. Our book of the month The Darkest Child was full of kids. Rozelle never stopped making them. But none of them compared to my favorite Child Character…Rue.
Rue had a sweet nature, loving those close to her, and hates to see them hurt. Her greatest joy in life was music, and she loved singing with the mockingjays at home. The mockingjays back home liked her and are used to her because she was the one who sang a four-note melody that signals the end of a work day out in the field. She is excited at the prospect of adventure – one character trait that she does not share with Katniss’s sister, Primrose.
She is also very observant of her surroundings, noticing every piece of information she saw when spying on the Careers.
Rue fully understood the inhumane and brutal nature of the Hunger Games, and refused to sink down to the level of the others. Instead of attacking at the first sight of other tributes, she spied and gathered information that helped her and Katniss form a plan on how to wipe out the Careers. Katniss supplied a bit of emotional support to Rue, giving her the hope that maybe it wouldn’t be all bad.
It is also her personality that set her apart from Prim. Prim could not stand to see anything get hurt and would have definitely not been able to harm anyone in the Games, but Rue was ready and willing to go forth with the plan, seeing it as an adventure (Prim sees adventures as an ordeal). Teaching Prim to hunt was a disaster, with her crying over the shot animal and wondering if there was time to rush it home and nurse it back to health, whereas Rue was prepared to do whatever to survive. Rue was also very bird-like, the way she was able to move swiftly through the trees without being noticed.
Who is your favorite child character?
Mocha Girl Alysia