Heroes

Oh we can beat them, forever and ever
Then we could be heroes, just for one day
                                                                     David Bowie

           With the upcoming release of the movie The Hunger Games based on the first of the trio of books by author Suzanne Collins there is a great deal of talk about heroes-or heroines as the case maybe. For the sake of brevity, I will call them all heroes.

            Comparisons of heroes-Hermione Granger, Bella Swan, Katniss Everdeen, among others-is frustrating to me. Some things are too obvious to be stated (like these three wildly popular book series featuring these strong female leads are all authored by women) and others much too different to stand comparison (a teenage wizard, a girl risking her life to love a vampire and a teen living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland).So don’t separate this unlikely trio of literary stars, but unite them under a banner of equity rather than inequality. 

            Hermione, Bella and Katniss offer strengths and weaknesses as female leads which are distinct to each character’s situation and circumstance.  Each is intelligent and thoughtful in their own way; all three risk their lives to defend those they love and all three are faced with life-changing decisions or events which they are unprepared for due to youthful inexperience. Mentally and physically each character is tormented and tortured and survives. This would be the one unifying quality for all three-they survive through their own inner strength and an acquired mental toughness. This should be what is taken away from the reading of the books in which each of these young women is featured. Each one makes mistakes, every one of them suffers, all three love, all three are victorious at some point due to their own wits and in the end they all survive.

            Don’t spend time picking apart the characters by pitting them against one another. Join them in a trifecta for the strength of heart and compassion they all exhibit. There are too few female characters who gain the spotlight to divide and conquer them amongst ourselves. Spotlight each for their unique abilities and attitudes, draw them together and celebrate so that there will be even more literary heroines like Hermione, Katniss and Bella.