Die Hauptfigur, die es sich kennenzulernen lohnt / Characters worth meeting

Hier diskutieren wir über unsere Lieblingsliteraturhelden, die es sich kennenzulernen lohnt. / Here we discuss our favourite characters.

Maria Fellner - 04.01.2020 @ 09:53

Extraordinary girl

by Zuzanna Lassota, VIII LO Kraków/Poland

       Nowadays most of people discuss about sport, politics and other stuff. Why doesn’t anybody (especially in our age) talk about books characters? Why it is so old-fashioned. Let’s face this problem!                                                                                                                                                                                     A lot of characters can be an authority for us. For example, my beloved personage is Hazel Grace Lancaster from John Green’s book “The Fault In Our Stars”. I don’t know if you recognize this person but I will bring you closer her personality. She is a teenager but not like every average person at her age. This girl has a lung cancer so she cannot afford many extremely cool activities. I admire her because despite her illness she tries to live like a normal teenager. She is so amiable and witty. Hazel is keen on reading books and poems so she can be a role model for students.

     Moreover, she hates when someone people treat her as a disabled person. Perseverance is her strong point. Designated goals are always accomplished by Hazel. She is my authority because every time when I have a bad day or my goals weren’t completed I think about Hazel’s stubbornness and I want to be as obstinate as she is.

     To sum up I think that this is the person who every young girl or boy should know. If you meet her, you will see what a real “hero” looks like. You also can learn from her how to cope with everyday problems. Furthermore, meeting with Hazel can be very instructive because you see what is the life of a person who does not know if she is able to see tomorrow. So you will be able to learn how to live from day to day and appreciate every moment.

    What do you think about Hazel? Maybe you have your own favourite character?    

Zuzanna Lassota - 10.03.2020 @ 23:42

Dear Zuzanna!

I absolutely adore Hazel Grace and I think you did a good job writing about her character traits. One of my all-time favourite characters is Leah Burke from the book "Leah on the offbeat" by Becky Albertalli. She is very creative and one of her passions is drumming. Her best character traits are her cunningness and ambition. She is also very relatable as a person because she is for example self-conscious about her drawings and that makes her human. In the book she is going through change because it's her last year of high school and her friend group is slowly breaking apart but she learns how to cope with it and in the end everything turns out just right. Spoiler warning! She even ends up dating her crush and friend Abby. Her character growth is very inspiring and that's only some of the reasons why I like her so much.

Leonie Reiter - 30.04.2020 @ 23:47

Hello Zuzanna!

Thank you for introducing to me Hazel. I’ve never watched this film nor read the book. She seems like a courageous person, stubbornly fighting her condition. I think it is really important to have strong female characters in literature. One of my favourite characters is Yennefer of Vengerberg, known from “The Witcher “games, books and a Netflix series. She was originally created by Andrzej Sapkowski, the author of a book saga. She is a one of the most powerful sorceresses on the continent, known for her beauty and a fiery temperament. She is strong, always gets what she wants. However, there are two things she had craved, but couldn’t get for a long time. These are a child and somebody who will love her warts and all. She finally finds witcher Gestalt and Ciri who become her family. I admire the way she fights for important people in her life, going through losing her powers, tortures, travels across the oceans and land. I think every woman can look up to her when it comes to self-confidence and self-esteem. Yen shows how important a female voice can be and that there is no price too high to pay protecting people we love.

Dominika Gwóźdź - 31.05.2020 @ 20:39

Ich liebe auch Hazel, weil sie so stark ist! Sie überlebt Tag für Tag. Natürlich hat sie oft schlechte Tage, aber es kann ich verstehen. Ich finde Gus auch süß, weil er ähnlich wie Hazel ist. Ich denke, dass sie zusammen das beste Paar auf der Welt sind. Sie sind noch sehr jung, aber sie leben wie zwei Erwachsene wegen ihrer Krankheit. Isaac ist auch ein sehr guter Freund. Er ist blind, also, er hat auch eine Krankheit wie die anderen. Sie fühlen sehr große Empathie für einander und für die Welt. Also alles in allem, alle Charaktere haben mir gut gefallen.

Anna Jányoki - 02.06.2020 @ 23:18

Hey Zuzanna,

I also read the book "The Fault in our stars" and absolutely loved it! And I adored the characters and their personal developments. Therefore, I can completely understand it that you see Hazel as your idol and a person you can look up to and learn from. And if I am being honest, I never thought about the question if I had a character that has the function of someone I idolize. Rather I had characters I enjoyed to read about, because I liked certain character traits that I could relate to. I think in the future (thanks to your article) I will pay more attention to characters and maybe I will find my own idol someday ;)

Anastasia Sobol - 16.09.2020 @ 16:07