I've started a new weekly meme here and I'd love for you to join me. Saturdays are now dedicated to honor the characters that don't always get their voices heard, who support (or work to destroy) our beloved protagonists. This is for the third wheel in the love triangle (can you have wheels on a triangle?), for the BFFs, the family members, or even just the kind and loving (or deceitful and creepy) stranger who shows up and changes the game. We all know these stories wouldn't hold up without support so I'd like to take the time to highlight the best secondary characters I come across. This is an opportunity to talk about what makes these characters special, maybe to speculate what their world would be like without them, or maybe cast them in their own primary roles. If you'd like to create a SCS post leave your link in the comments and I'll check it out!
So today it's all about:
Johanna from Insurgent
There weren't too many new characters in the follow up to Divergent, but I found the leader Amity was a great addition to this world. Don't get me wrong, half of the book she drove me up a wall - but I think she's supposed to. She's a more passive person and the story is narrated by Tris, and "passive" is not in her vocabulary. Mostly, I think I like her because she's created as a representative of the Amity faction, a faction that only makes a very brief appearance in Divergent. During the whole blogger challenge in the lead up to Insurgent's release, I was definitely Team Amity. It's kind of a hippie faction - peace loving, tree hugging and all. So between their absence in the first book and my own allegiance to the faction, I was so curious about their role in Insurgent.
So that's were Johanna comes in. She is the spokesperson for Amity. All of Amity makes their decisions together and Johanna relays those decisions. She's also the one who brings things to the faction to be discussed. Of course, no faction is perfect, so we also find out through her what those imperfections are. But the real reason I think Johanna is so important in this book is in her polar opposition to Tris. Even though we don't really know too much about Johanna, I'm willing to bet that the things she and Tris have in common could be counted on a hand. Yet, when it comes down to the wire, they are on the same side working for the same thing. Both are characters you can root for, they just take different approaches to solve a problem.
I can imagine that Johanna has a really great story and knowing she has a story - a past that's shaped her into who she is and where she is headed - is what makes her a great secondary character worth talking about.
So today it's all about:
Johanna from Insurgent
There weren't too many new characters in the follow up to Divergent, but I found the leader Amity was a great addition to this world. Don't get me wrong, half of the book she drove me up a wall - but I think she's supposed to. She's a more passive person and the story is narrated by Tris, and "passive" is not in her vocabulary. Mostly, I think I like her because she's created as a representative of the Amity faction, a faction that only makes a very brief appearance in Divergent. During the whole blogger challenge in the lead up to Insurgent's release, I was definitely Team Amity. It's kind of a hippie faction - peace loving, tree hugging and all. So between their absence in the first book and my own allegiance to the faction, I was so curious about their role in Insurgent.So that's were Johanna comes in. She is the spokesperson for Amity. All of Amity makes their decisions together and Johanna relays those decisions. She's also the one who brings things to the faction to be discussed. Of course, no faction is perfect, so we also find out through her what those imperfections are. But the real reason I think Johanna is so important in this book is in her polar opposition to Tris. Even though we don't really know too much about Johanna, I'm willing to bet that the things she and Tris have in common could be counted on a hand. Yet, when it comes down to the wire, they are on the same side working for the same thing. Both are characters you can root for, they just take different approaches to solve a problem.
I can imagine that Johanna has a really great story and knowing she has a story - a past that's shaped her into who she is and where she is headed - is what makes her a great secondary character worth talking about.
