Your Turn: Carrie Meeber

From Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
Nominated by Natalie Pappas

Nothing is certain, but I'm about 99.9% sure that Theodore Dreiser didn't create Sister Carrie as a heroine. In the book of the same name, Carrie moves to the big city of Chicago, cohabits with a traveling salesman, runs away with the embezzling manager of a bar, and becomes a chorus girl. She ends up "amid the tinsel and shine" of Broadway, basking in fame but still searching for something, dreaming about "happiness [that she] may never feel."

Continue reading "Your Turn: Carrie Meeber" »

Tags: Independent Women | Literature

4:44 PM ET | 01-31-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Billy Pilgrim

From Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
Nominated by Brock Spore

Billy Pilgrim was a quiet and helplessly comic person who maintained his sanity while the world around him experienced wave after wave of madness.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Billy Pilgrim" »

Tags: Literature | Science Fiction

3:15 PM ET | 01-31-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Ennis Del Mar

From Brokeback Mountain by E. Annie Proulx
Movie directed by Ang Lee
Nominated by Truman Adkins

In this classic tragedy, Ennis Del Mar represents the classic American icon, the Cowboy (or in his precise case a sheepherder) who deals with the effects of rural homophobia as best he can. Having been indoctrinated from age 9 that his attraction could get him killed, he struggles in vain to pursue happiness in his life, and sublimate his nature in order to keep safe. The price he pays for this: loneliness and abandonment.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Ennis Del Mar" »

Tags: Literature | Movies | Romantic Heroes

2:54 PM ET | 01-31-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Jenny Fields

From The World According To Garp by John Irving
Movie directed by George Roy Hill
Nominated by Eric Orner

I wrestled with my sexuality throughout college during in the 1980s. As a Jew, I worried about the moral repercussions of my gay orientation---about not doing everything I could to procreate. And, as an American I worried about the material consequences of coming out. Would I be denied happiness? Jobs? Physical security? When I read Irving's book, my eyes were opened wide by his depiction of a character who was uncompromising in her attitude towards sex and sexuality.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Jenny Fields" »

Tags: Independent Women | Literature | Movies

10:15 PM ET | 01-30-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: George Jefferson

From The Jeffersons, created by Don Nichol and Michael Ross
Nominated by Jeffrey Alexander Brathwaite

Considering your question on influential American fictional characters, I think of George Jefferson, of the TV show, The Jeffersons.

As a young Black boy growing up during the 70s in South Bronx, I didn't have many role models. But in George Jefferson I witnessed weekly the fortitude and drive of a successful Black businessman.

Continue reading "Your Turn: George Jefferson" »

Tags: Comedy | TV

9:56 PM ET | 01-30-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Lisa Simpson

From The Simpsons cartoon, created by Matt Groening
Nominated by Katherine Duke

Lisa Simpson is the epitome of the gifted kid, almost too smart and too "good" for her own good. She's converted to vegetarianism, taken on corrupt politicians and polluters, and invented a perpetual-motion machine, all while acing the second grade some 20 years in a row.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Lisa Simpson" »

Tags: Animation | Comedy | Comics | Nerds

9:54 PM ET | 01-30-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Dr. Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce

From MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors by Richard Hooker
Movie directed by Robert Altman
M*A*S*H television series created by H. Richard Hornberger
Nominated by Maureen Cruz

Brilliant and irreverent, Dr. Benjamin Franklin 'Hawkeye' Pierce was the voice of a generation at war -- a generation and a war I was too young to understand when I was introduced to M*A*S*H at the age of about 10.

A womanizing, insufferably arrogant, borderline alcoholic, Hawkeye was a sight to behold. He had no patience for bureaucracy, no respect for authority and no capacity for commitment to any one woman. He was the Army's (and every father's) worst nightmare.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Dr. Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce" »

Tags: Movies | TV

6:05 PM ET | 01-30-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Christy Huddleston

From Christy by Catherine Marshall
Nominated by Rebecca Briley

Growing up in a literary family, I read everything I could find, drawn especially to female characters who were teachers: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Anne of Green Gables, Jane Eyre--the list is long. But the deepest impression was made by Catherine Marshall's Christy, a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in the Smokey Mountains at the turn of the century. Overcoming squeamish distaste for native customs with unadulterated love for Fairlight Spencer and Little Burl, Christy Huddleston, c'est moi.

I longed to teach in a one-room schoolhouse, nourishing some impoverished Appalachian child with the love of reading. Never having that opportunity, I have managed to teach elsewhere: Kentucky, Europe, the Marshall Islands, and finally even Turkish students in North Cyprus. My students always remark they have never had a teacher like me: one who loves her subject and students so equally and overtly. I have Christy to thank for that. As they say, if you can read this, thank a teacher. I do--all of them who taught me to love literature and to share that love with others.

Tags: Independent Women | Romantic Heroes | TV | Working Women

3:11 PM ET | 01-30-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Nancy Drew

From the Nancy Drew mystery series, created by Edward Stratemeyer
Nominated by Kelli Donley

My mom gave me her childhood collection of Nancy Drew novels when I was in elementary school. I inhaled them -- all 40 mystery stories about the girl who could solve crime, and do so with great fashion and manners.

Nancy had a boyfriend and a father who she relied on only in direst of cases. Instead, she taught young girls that they could be successful, smart, individualistic -- and drive a fun convertible.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Nancy Drew" »

Tags: Children's Literature | Working Women

11:37 PM ET | 01-29-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Owen Meany

From A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving
Nominated by Lydia Casman

Today, the world seems to have deemed faith and rationality incompatible. Perhaps the world has not met Owen Meany.

Owen is the son of a New Hampshire granite quarrier in John Irving's novel A Prayer for Owen Meany. He is abnormally small for his age, has an indescribable yet unforgettable voice, and firmly believes he is God's instrument.

Yet Owen is not a fool. He is the top of his class at a prestigious high school and understands the world in ways his peers do not. He is an avid critic of everything from school policy to American policy and the Vietnam War. Owen is intelligent, yet he maintains the belief that God has a special plan for him. And God does.

Owen Meany showed me that one can be a rational human being and at the same time have faith that there is a bigger force at work in our lives.

Tags: Coming of Age

6:21 PM ET | 01-29-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Marjorie "Maude" Chardin

From Harold and Maude, directed by Hal Ashby
Nominated by Jane Bratton

When I grow up, I want to be like Maude.

I was a teenager the first time I saw Harold and Maude. I understood the moviegoers who were turned off by the main plot -- which finds the 79-year-old Maude engaged in a romantic relationship with 20-year-old Harold.

Years later, however, I've come to not only appreciate Maude's propensity for mischief and merriment, but her views on life as well. "Play as well as you can," she reminds us.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Marjorie "Maude" Chardin" »

Tags: Independent Women | Movies | Romantic Heroes

6:18 PM ET | 01-29-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Tommy Pickles

From Rugrats, created by Gabor Csupo, Paul Germain, and
Arlene Klasky
Nominated by Billy Skrobacz

Bravery, courtesy, and honor are all traits of a hero. Tommy Pickles, from the Nickelodeon series Rugrats, embodies all of these values.

Scoring touchdowns with chocolate-milk bottles, dealing with bullies, and trying to follow in the footsteps of Reptar, Tommy Pickles should be recognized as one of the most important people in television.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Tommy Pickles" »

Tags: Animation | Comedy | TV

5:39 PM ET | 01-29-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

The 'In Character' Blog on the Radio

Did y'all hear it? Did you drive off the road?

Tonight, after Karen Grigsby Bates' Scarlett O'Hara piece on All Things Considered, we made good on a promise we made when we launched this blog: that some of your essays could wind up on the radio.

ATC host Robert Siegel read a (slightly shortened) version of Mike McCabe's Jack Bauer essay on the air. If you missed it, you can listen online: There's a cut in the middle, but you can click here, then click here to cue up the two segments back-to-back in our new Flash player.

Mr. McCabe, consider yourself introduced to nearly 12 million new friends. The rest of you, consider yourself invited to join the competition for the next on-air spot.

-- Trey Graham

6:45 PM ET | 01-28-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

Coming to Grips with Scarlett Fever

Growing up, there was plenty to read on the shelves in our house. In addition to James Baldwin, Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks, there were Jane Austen, Truman Capote and Louisa May Alcott -- but there was no Gone With The Wind. My mother was raised in segregated Charlotte, N.C., and she had short patience with romantic notions about a Southern glory that had been built on the backs of slave labor. Some of them had been our ancestors.

I stumbled across Scarlett on my own at almost 16 -- the same age Scarlett is when the book opens. In the years since, I've encountered several black women who share my fondness for Margaret Mitchell's vain, willful and, let's face it, emotionally clueless heroine. Like me, they think Scarlett Fever is a complicated business.

"I love the little hussy," writer Terry McMillan e-mailed me as she was frantically trying to finish her about-to-be-published novel. "But you know, for u there is a whole lot of mess attached to that girl! Good luck trying to explain it!"

I don't know that anyone could explain it in the approximately 6 minutes I was allowed on-air, but I guess for me, the bottom line is this: GWTW remains an engaging piece of fiction. And fiction is supposed to allow you to see the point of view of The Other.

Margaret Mitchell did a good job describing the life of Southern gentry. But her black people are largely two-dimensional. It was the great Hattie McDaniel, in the movie, who finally brought Mammy to life.

If you're curious about what Prissy, Mammy and Pork really thought about life at Tara, find yourself a copy of Margaret Walker's Jubilee. Written in 1966, almost exactly 100 years after the Civil War ended, it's the story of Walker's great-grandmother Vyry. Jubilee is an unblinking look at plantation life from the point of view of those who did the work, and it's well worth the search.

--Karen Grigsby Bates

Editor's note: Before we told you Karen's essay was in the works, many of you nominated Scarlett as an In Character essential. We posted Sabrina Stevens' essay on the blog earlier, and there's more Scarlett conversation in the comments there.

Tags: Movies

6:05 PM ET | 01-28-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Wonder Woman

From the Wonder Woman comic books, created by William Moulton Marston
Nominated by Rosalie Rippey

The stars in my eyes were the reflection from Linda Carter's dance pants.

As a little girl of the 1970s, I aspired to be Wonder Woman. With bullet-deflecting bracelets and a golden lasso of truth she fought crime, defused bombs, and rescued imperiled civilians. With a graceful spin, she transformed from a prim secretary in glasses and tight bun into an Amazon queen, champion of humanity.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Wonder Woman" »

Tags: Comics | Independent Women | Superheroes | TV

5:45 PM ET | 01-28-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Shane

From Shane by Jack Shaefer, movie directed by George Stevens
Nominated by James Deutsch

Shane appears in the West from the mountains of the gods. He has no family, no past, no last name. Self-reliant and independent, he is clad in buckskin, having only a horse and gun.

Shane enters a deadly conflict pitting the Holy Family (Joe/Joseph, Marian/Mary, and their son Joey/Jesus) against the evil Rykers (i.e., Third Reichers or Nazis). In the end, after defeating the Nazis and their sadistic black-clad S.S. antagonist (Jack Wilson), Shane returns to the mountains from whence he came--alone.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Shane" »

Tags: Literature | Movies | Reluctant Hero

3:27 PM ET | 01-28-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

Changing the Lens

One of the goals of this series is to occasionally look at characters from an unexpected angle. Thomas Siegman's essay on Gilligan is a wonderful example. Love his "inner Gilligan" theory!

Another example will air this Monday on All Things Considered. NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates examines Margaret Mitchell's feisty heroine Scarlett O'Hara from various African-American perspectives.

I don't want to give away too much, so let's just say that Karen's conditional love for Scarlett is eye-opening. Karen will be our guest blogger on Monday. I know that Scarlett has already inspired some conversation on the blog -- so fan or foe, I hope you'll weigh in on Monday, when Karen has her say about the sassy southern belle.

-- Elizabeth Blair

Tags: Movies

2:32 PM ET | 01-25-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Eloise

From the Eloise books by Kay Thompson
Nominated by Elaine Wrubel

The indomitable spirit of Eloise is as relevant and recognizable today as it was in 1955 when first published. Reading about her when I was a young girl in the Midwest made me yearn to see The Plaza up close, to experience the same rooms and staff that she knew so well.

Eloise was charming, bold, endearing and oh so lucky! She had no restrictive parents and had so much time to explore that grand hotel. I loved her rambling thoughts, her freedom to explore, and her companionship with Nanny.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Eloise" »

Tags: Children's Literature | Independent Women

1:29 PM ET | 01-25-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Gilligan

From Gilligan's Island, created by Sherwood Schwartz
Nominated by Thomas Siegman

Poor castaways. Each week they would devise a way off the island. Each week Gilligan would thwart their escape — usually with the best of intentions.

Years after the show ended, its creator, Sherwood Schwartz, admitted that each of the characters represented one of the seven deadly sins — Pride (the Professor), Anger (Skipper), Lust, (Ginger), and the rest. Gilligan was supposed to be Sloth.

But a closer viewing indicates that the island may well have been Hell -- and the red-clad Gilligan the devil who kept them on his island.

The greatest part of the metaphor, though, is that if the others ever wanted to get off the island, what they needed to do was kill Gilligan -- and that each of us has our own inner Gilligan, that sweet-natured, well-meaning part of us that always sabotages us from getting what we really want.

Maybe if we truly want to succeed in life, we need to kill our own inner Gilligan.

Tags: Comedy | TV

12:29 PM ET | 01-25-2008 | permalink | comments (6) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Lt. Columbo

From the Columbo TV series, created by Richard Levinson and William Link
Nominated by Audrey Glickman

Columbo broke with tradition, showing the crime first, then expecting us to watch for another hour to see the detective's thought processes as he psyched out the criminals. Columbo showed an individualist, intelligent and humble, being himself regardless of the establishment.

Awkward yet smooth, he reveled in his dishevelment, using it to advantage. With an eclectic car, one suit, beloved wife, dog, and no gun, Columbo on the job was in control, an eye on the suspect and a clear goal.

Three-dimensional characters are collaborations between writers and actors. I suspect Peter Falk, a consummate actor, is as fond of Columbo as we are.

Columbo is highly intelligent, lovable, moral but nonjudgmental, and expert at what he loves. He was portrayed by a brilliant actor with wit, humor, and a deep knowledge of a character he apparently enjoyed.

Tags: Detectives | TV

5:21 PM ET | 01-24-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Leia Organa

From the Star Wars films, created by George Lucas
Nominated by Amy Hale-Janeke

I first encountered Princess Leia Organa when I was five years old and sitting in the front row of a theater watching Star Wars. Leia was everything that I wanted to be when I grew up: a smart (and smart-mouthed) leader who refused to be condescended to even by someone as good-looking as Han Solo. She didn't have kids. Instead, she had a career and a cause.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Leia Organa" »

Tags: Adventure | Movies | Science Fiction

5:15 PM ET | 01-24-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Scrooge McDuck

Originally appeared in Donald Duck Four Color Comics #178, created by Carl Barks
Nominated by Dana Gabbard

Scrooge McDuck is a most unlikely pop-culture icon. Unlike most media stars, he's elderly. His personality is also rather prickly. The ultimate self-made man, he exults in his wealth and has little interest in conventional enjoyments.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Scrooge McDuck" »

Tags: Animation | Comics | TV

5:09 PM ET | 01-24-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Mame Dennis

From Auntie Mame. Book by Patrick Dennis
Play adapted by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Movie directed by Morton DaCosta
Nominated by Michael Whistler

My mother deemed one movie important enough for repeated family viewing: Auntie Mame, based on the novel by Patrick Dennis and starring the unforgettable Rosalind Russell.

Mame Dennis challenges her young charge Patrick to "Live! Live! Live!," presenting a world which is filled with miracles and not obstacles, hope instead of despair. Amid the chaos she creates, she ensures that he lives in a world filled with warmth, vivacity, charm, culture, adventure and beauty.

Sitting in that living room watching the movie, I could see the world my mother tried to offer me through Mame's - one where wit trumps power, charm overcomes fear, and generosity is the greatest act of human courage. Auntie Mame taught me the simple virtue of human love: the bravest person has the most to give, the most fearful has the least of all.

In short: Auntie Mame taught me to be a man.

Tags: Independent Women | Literature | Movies | Theater

10:01 AM ET | 01-23-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Ignatius J. Reilly

From A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Nominated by Craig Tower

We don't advertise that our son is named after Ignatius J. Reilly. Even for those who have read A Confederacy of Dunces, Ignatius is far from heroic. He's a reactionary neo-Luddite; an onanistic mama's boy, a failed academic and a relentless highbrow critic of pop culture, which he consumes with as much lowbrow abandon as he devours donuts and soda. But he's also erratically brilliant, generally tolerant and wholly iconic of his natal New Orleans.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Ignatius J. Reilly" »

Tags: Antiheroes | Comedy | Literature

9:28 AM ET | 01-23-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

 

Meet the Other Intern: Justin Hienz

Readers and listeners: I'm Justin Hienz, an intern at NPR. Every day, I see nominations and comments you submit, and I've been excited to remember with you all those fictional personalities that influence our lives. In reminiscing, I feel compelled to suggest another.

Darth Vader (a.k.a. Anakin Skywalker)
From the Star Wars films, created by George Lucas

Of characters from American fiction, few have elicited as enduring a fascination as Darth Vader. The stiff black suit, the mysterious, ominous mask, the deep, commanding voice, the red lightsaber — he is the personification of evil and anguish, and we love him for it.

He kills subordinate Imperial officers on a whim, and we cheer. He threatens destruction, and we silently hope to see it done. At every stage, we both fear and hope for his success.

In Episodes 1-3, Vader became a more complex character for viewers. We gained a greater understanding of how a promising Jedi could fall so far from the light. And yet, watching Anakin Skywalker start down the path to becoming Darth Vader by killing a village of Sand People, I still feel a satisfying rush. They did kill his mother, after all. It was retribution — justified evil; in the words of the aspiring emperor Senator Palpatine (a.k.a., Darth Sidious), I always think to myself when watching, "Do it! Kill them!" Am I a bad person because part of me wants to see Vader thrive on the Dark Side of the Force? I think not.

Continue reading "Meet the Other Intern: Justin Hienz" »

Tags: Adventure | Rebels | Science Fiction | Villains

3:05 PM ET | 01-18-2008 | permalink | comments (9) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Susie Salmon

From The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Nominated by Caleigh Tansey

The liveliness of a character from a novel can grasp you in the most profound ways and leave you with a good feeling about the piece you have just read. So, what about those characters that are not so alive?

Susie Salmon of The Lovely Bones is a 14-year old girl who watches her family, friends, and murderer from her heaven above. She not only has to watch her family struggle without her, but think of what she would be doing if she were alive at that very moment.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Susie Salmon" »

Tags: Literature

11:13 AM ET | 01-18-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Idgie Threadgoode

From Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, by Fannie Flagg
Fried Green Tomatoes directed by Jon Avnet
Nominated by Tyisha Turner

Idgie Threadgoode is one of the main characters in this film based on the novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg. Idgie is a fierce, free-spirited, resourceful young woman. She proves herself a true heroine as she overcomes death, violence, racism, and sexism throughout her life.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Idgie Threadgoode" »

Tags: Independent Women | Movies | Rebels

1:23 PM ET | 01-17-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: John Bender

From The Breakfast Club, written and directed by John Hughes
Nominated by Morgan Urquia

John Bender speaks to a generation of '80s rebels whose job is to tick people off. Society needs one thing to progress: a catalyst, a person who isn't afraid to push people over the edge into a quarry of realization. Bender inspired a generation to get over their predetermined position in the social chain and open their eyes to problems everyone experiences.

Continue reading "Your Turn: John Bender" »

Tags: Coming of Age | Movies | Rebels | Teens

9:39 AM ET | 01-17-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Ed Kennedy

From I Am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak
Nominated by Ben Buhrman

Literary heroes come in many forms. Most of those forms take shape in above and beyond characterizations of the superman (or woman) we all want to be. But a select few writers create characters that, instead of being abnormally heroic, are heroically normal. Ed Kennedy of I Am the Messenger is a perfect example of this.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Ed Kennedy" »

Tags: Children's Literature | Reluctant Hero

7:01 PM ET | 01-16-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Scout Finch

From To Kill A Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee
Nominated by Patrice Lattrell

Ever since I heard the introduction for the In Character blog on NPR I have pondered the character I would choose. As a high school English teacher and avid reader from childhood, I have a pantheon of favorite characters, all of them best friends to whom I turn when feeling lonely. However, I have finally settled on Scout Finch.

As a little girl growing up in the early 70s, I saw Scout as a role model in a world with very few strong girl characters.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Scout Finch" »

Tags: Girls Next Door | Literature | Movies

6:32 PM ET | 01-16-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Betty Boop

From the Talkartoon and Betty Boop cartoon film series, produced by Max Fleischer
Nominated by Samantha Melendez

First appearing on television in the 1930s, the "Boop-Oop-A-Doop" girl won the hearts of many Americans with her overt sexual appeal. Betty Boop, the first character to represent the new "sexual" woman showed her skin in a short dress that showed her garter belt and her cleavage. Little did I know that she represented an era where women felt "awakened" by their sexuality.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Betty Boop" »

Tags: Comics | Femmes Fatales

5:30 PM ET | 01-16-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Cameron Frye

From Ferris Bueller's Day Off, directed by John Hughes
Nominated by Sara King

Ferris Bueller is who every teenager wants to be. He is the cool, slick, lovable wise guy. But what about the other guy — Cameron? Though Ferris is one righteous dude, it is Cameron that I relate to.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Cameron Frye" »

Tags: Comedy | Movies | Sidekicks | Teens

11:35 AM ET | 01-16-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Wishbone

From Wishbone, created by Rick Duffield
Nominated by Ellie Milano

Who better to represent a classic American fictional character than man's best friend? In PBS's late 1990s TV series, Wishbone was a spunky terrier who mixed events from his everyday life with his owners, the Talbots, with stories from classic literature. Creating storylines based on works such as Romeo and Juliet, Joan of Arc, Rip van Winkle, and Treasure Island, Wishbone opened many children's eyes to famous literature, without their even knowing it.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Wishbone" »

Tags: TV

11:07 AM ET | 01-16-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Charlie Brown

From the Peanuts comic strip, created by Charles M. Schulz
Nominated by Jennifer Harrell

Charlie Brown is appealing to all people because you cannot help but feel bad for him. In "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," Charlie Brown works on his costume diligently, but it turns out to be a debacle. As he trick-or-treats with his friends, he only gets rocks, while others get candy.

He demonstrates the feelings we have on those days when everything seems to go wrong. It breaks your heart to watch Charlie Brown struggle to kick the football, knowing Lucy will inevitably pull it away, but his perseverance is inspiring.

At the end of the day, Charlie Brown is surrounded by friends like Snoopy and Linus who, although they get fed-up with him, care about him. In the Christmas special, the others were frustrated when he bought the dilapidated Christmas tree, but they rallied together to make the tree -- and Charlie Brown's Christmas -- beautiful.

Tags: Comics

6:35 PM ET | 01-15-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Ann Marie

From That Girl, created by Sam Denoff and Bill Persky
Nominated by Joan Winslow

That Girl skipped into my life, throwing her hat into my four-year-old soul. She was a good girl who happily lived alone, talked back to her father, palled around with a nice guy -- the ideal liberated woman from the viewpoint of a small girl.

Especially one whose own father spat out the words "women's lib" and "independent" with the venom of profanity. As many did: the Women's Liberation Movement was deeply contentious inside many a home.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Ann Marie" »

Tags: Comedy | TV | Working Women

6:33 PM ET | 01-15-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Tony Montana

From Scarface, directed by Brian De Palma
Nominated by John Brann.

Tony Montana has become an American icon to guys everywhere after appearing in Scarface. He holds the characteristics that every man desires. Montana is tough, fearless, courageous, power hungry and doesn't care what anyone else thinks.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Tony Montana" »

Tags: Antiheroes | Movies | Villains

6:15 PM ET | 01-15-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Jessica Darling

From the Sloppy Firsts book series by Megan McCafferty
Nominated by Izumi Suzuki

Jessica Darling might not be the most famous American icon. In fact, her name may only resonate with teenage girls like me, who enjoy this series and its relatable, imperfect heroine. Jessica is your average 17-year-old, dealing with awkward growing pains and everyday struggles with as much dry humor as possible.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Jessica Darling" »

Tags: Children's Literature | Rebels | Teens

11:10 AM ET | 01-15-2008 | permalink | comments (7) | e-mail post

 

Our Cast of Characters

Thus far many of the characters we've heard about in the series are, wel