Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Fictional Character--Gone With the Wind

The prompt says "Any character from your favorite book."

That, for me, is problematic. My favorite book is "Gone With the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell. If you know this book, and if you have read this book or have even watched the movie (which was, I might add, nowhere as epic as the novel was based off of), you may know the awkward position I am in.

Immediately I thought that the character I may want to be out of all the numerous characters of the book are Melanie, the kindly elegant sweetheart that everybody loves and admires and listens to and favors with their hearts.

Oh wait, she died. And I value life.

I thought of Ashley, the suave handesome amiable prince-like character that is brave and admireable, and--

Not only is he a man, but he eventually spirals into a depression of sorts.

Obviously the most initial character that pops into the head when you hear "Gone with the Wind", and the only one developed enought to make a decison on if you would like to be in her position is Scarlett O'Hara the main character, and one of the only few who was not deceased by the end of the book. She is also the last character I would want to be.

Scarlett O'Hara was spoiled, bratty, and gradually more hated by society as the book went on, and more than that, out of all the characters, I can assume she may actually be the one who suffered the most through out the book, implicated as the cause of why she had grown so bitter and strict by the end. Though she was beautiful. And that's nice.

But given this sticky situation of having to choose amongst these troubled characters on who I would like to be, it actually makes me appreciate that I am who I am, and it makes me appreciate that wonderful book that Margaret Mitchell wrote, as well. It is known as a classic, and that's for a reason. It not only jerks and plays with the hearts of its readers, but it was realistic, it was paced so detailed and so precisely that you felt exactly what the characters were feeling, you felt exactly what they were going through, you were totally embalmed in the whole story piece by piece, lost in a sensation, moving and changing with the people you read about.

And it wasn't one of those cliched happy-ending-evertyhing-turned-out-okay things, it displayed reality like nothing else ever did, and it exploited the actual behavoir and chages that we as human beings go through, not sparing any details, and not sparing any false implications of what happens when we make mistakes like Scarlett O'Hara did. Scarllet O'Hara who was not, incidentally, a Mary Sue.

And through this realism and well-written-ness and incredably developed characters, it made you really appreciate that you are who you are, and you're at where you're at. You don't wish you were somebody in the book, or in place in the book, because it was, like I said, realistic and it conveyed more than just a story. It conveyed a feeling, and a sense of gratitude.

So via this writing prompt, and via contemplating upon my favorite book in the world, I have decided that my favorite book is my life, I will gladly go through every chapter, whether it be hard to get through or a thrilling read, and the character I would most like to be is me. That is all.

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