I just finished reading "The Smart One and the Pretty One" by Claire LaZebnik and it made me wonder: do authors purposely make one character more likable than the other or is it based on your personal preference and who you identify with because of your own opinions and tendencies? I mean in Harry Potter, sure, Harry was good and Voldemort was bad. That's obvious. But in chick lit and Young Adult fiction, is it that black and white?
For example Smart/Pretty is about two sisters: Ava and Lauren. Ava is the successful lawyer who is a little dowdy but she's nice and reserved. Lauren is the outgoing and fashionable sister who doesn't think about consequences and her debt is a big problem in the book. Now even in my description doesn't it show that I favored Ava over Lauren? But is that just because I'm not reckless and I don't try to meddle in people's lives and if I was severely in debt, I wouldn't continue to purchase fancy tops and designer jeans? But if someone is into fashion and likes to go with flow, does that mean they didn't care for the perhaps "boring" and "simplistic" Ava? Or is it the author who makes us favor Ava more than Lauren? I'm just not sure.
In movies, it's more subjective. For example, my college roommate and I both saw "Revolutionary Road" and I asked which character she sympathized with more. She said she was Team Kate while I was Team Leo. That's cool, different strokes for different folks. But I just kept wondering as I read this book, how could anyone like Lauren? She is pretty careless with other people's feelings, she forces her sister to do things she doesn't want to do, and she ends up falling for this horrible guy. It's the horrible guy that really clinched it for me. Now that character, that guy, the author made terrible on purpose. No doubt about it. He's rude and harsh and just an overall jerk. Which is why it is surprising that Lauren, this flirty, flighty, carefree girl would fall for him. So I just wonder how much authors manipulate their reader's thoughts and opinions.
Cause I'll be honest, there are one or two characters I obviously portray in a poor (read: pretty much pitch black) light in my book. But then there is one character and I don't know why, but I just don't like her sometimes. I know, it's insane. I created her, why wouldn't I like her? And I don't list horrible trait after horrible trait. In fact I almost feel guilty about not liking her so I am tossing a few noble things her way. But it's just weird. And I wonder IF people ever actually read this, will they not like her either or will they prefer her over the main character? Or do people just not care and I just read way too much into stuff?
These are just the thoughts that I have as I read novel after novel cause like I said, I consider it to be research.
Oh and two more thoughts: Why is that so many narrators say "I/my family wasn't particulary religious"? Is it just cause religion is a touchy subject so no one really wants to bring it into their stories? But Nicholas Sparks uses it quite a bit and he is still successful. I was actually surprised by how much he brought it up in his most recent book, "The Last Song". But maybe it caters more to his audience? And then my other thought: why is it whenever you want to illustrate that a character is crazy/outgoing/eccentric, the narrator/writer always says how they piece together different articles of clothing that "normally would like ridiculous but on her it looked fabulous and right". If I had a dollar for every time I read some variation of this, I'd be a rich girl. So I guess if you're looking to branch out, just mix together a bright yellow shirt with a hot pink skirt and add on some funky bracelets and blue stilettos and you're good to go. Oh cliches. But I'm sure I use one or two (or fifty) in my book so who am I to judge? Plus at the end of the day, they've gotten books published and I just have a 233 page word document. So they win!
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