We all have that one friend that we constantly feel out-shined by. Maybe they have a perfect GPA or are the soloist in choir or they are captain of the basketball team (maybe not at Booker T. but you get what I'm saying) or they are the famous wizard who survived an attack from Lord Voldemort and is one day destined to bring about his downfall and save the wizarding world. Whatever the situation may be, nobody likes to feel like second-best in comparison to their best buddy.
The friends of heroes seem to always get the short end of the stick. Sacrifices have to be made in order to save the beloved protagonist right? I mean without the protagonist, the stories we have grown to love would not even be stories. In the tenth chapter of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas Foerster explains why not all characters are created equally in our favorite books and movies. If all characters had the same importance and significance to a story, we as readers would constantly confuse the individual circumstances and backgrounds of each character and the entire plot would become a huge jumble inside our heads. So we have to have a hero. As the hero goes along his or her quests and journeys, bad things sometimes happen. When these bad things happen, the hero usually emerges a little beaten and battered, but the supporting and minor characters receive the brute of whatever challenges may arise.
The friends of the hero risk life and limb for that person so they can continue their quest and ultimately bring about a positive outcome for the greater good. For example, in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, the young wizard Harry Potter is the sole person that can kill the evil Lord Voldemort. Harry's parents, best friends, mentors, teachers, and even complete strangers die throughout the series because Harry's survival is so important. I sobbed for a solid twenty minutes when Dobby the House Elf died in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows after taking a knife to the chest that was meant to hit Harry. Later in that book Harry kills Voldemort and saves the world. He marries the love of his life and has three beautiful children that attend the same wizarding school he did. The story ended up so happy and hopeful yet I still couldn't shake the fact that this made up elf and countless other characters were killed in the process. Foerster also explored why readers (me especially) become so emotionally attached to the characters we come across. In this chapter Foerster explained that the combination of the readers' and writers' imaginations are what create such a strong connection between reader and character. We recognize personality traits of characters that we can observe in our own lives. We spend time building clear and detailed images of characters in our minds so that every time we open back up the book we are thrust back into this different world that we (alongside the author) have created. An article from Azusa Pacific University says that as humans, our natural tendency is to want to form relationships, so naturally we form our own relationships and connections with these fictional characters when we read a book. http://www.apu.edu/writingcenter/announcements/21098/
Real life, however, is not like a novel. There are no magical elves that throw themselves in front of daggers to save teenage wizards. There is not one person in this entire world, and in our individual lives whose well being and achievements dictate the lives of those around them. The only person whose successes and failures you really need to worry about is are your own. Thankfully we are not all forced to put ourselves in danger for a hero like the characters in a book because we are not bound to a specific plot, and we have the ability to chose the outcome of our own stories.
Rest in Peace Dobby.
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