What makes a "good" character

I've been thinking a lot about the concept of "character" given our discussion topics for tonight's class and thinking about the characters in The Hunger Games.   Obviously, Katniss is a character which represents individuality, human will to survive (like the mockingjay), but I think it is interesting that Collins shows her character becoming most rebellious, most like a "fire starter" when she is fighting for others -- not for herself.


These qualities of self-sacrifice for others -- other who we "know' or at least somehow "empathize/relate to" -- certainly reflect qualities we value in a democratic society.   


I'd like to say it is a universal human quality, but I'm not sure.   Not when I read other works like I Am Nujood and see how in some cultures it is not only acceptable but celebrated when children are abused, neglected -- particularly when they are female.


I'd love for someone to help me work this through further since I hate posting what feels like such pessimistic responses to what I think are ultimately such empowering and engaging reads.   (sigh)  Okay.  I will not dwell here.  


If anyone else has read Hunger Games, then you know the minute you get to the end of the book you want to start reading the next one.   I felt just as anxious to start re-reading the second book in the series as I did the first time through.  I am thinking now about WHY do certain books pull at a reader's head and heart?  And why does this book pull so?   It's been on the New York Times Best Seller's list for over 100 weeks as of December 2010.   Is it because the reader wants to protect Katniss and all those she loves?   Is it because the individual reader fully embraces the aesthetic response that Rosenblatt (2005, as cited in Wisniewski)  describes?   Is it because our cultural values so heavily embraces these qualities of Katniss?   


I guess the question I am asking is what "reading practices" (Moon,1999, pp. 134-137) are readers heavily relying on when reading this book?    If I use Moon's questions tothink about how I read Hunger Games, I would say...

• Did I read the text as the expression of the author's own ideas and experiences? No.
• Did I read the text as a comment about human nature?  Yes, definitely.
• Did I read the text as evidence of struggles between different groups of people?  Yes, although I didn't spend a lot of  time in my mind trying to make specific "factual" connections to the struggles.   Not sure if this was a limitation in my own reading practice?
• Did I treat characters in the text as human beings, and identify with their experiences?   Yes and no.  I think this is the ambiguousness of Fantasy/Science Fiction.   Unless the reader as able to fully suspend believe (and I am not) then some experiences can still seem true to the "story" but not as naturally identifiable.    This is funny though since other questions Moon poses is did I treat characters merely as devices used to develop ideas in the text?  Did I challenge the validity and acceptability of images in the text? And I certainly didn't think about the fact that these are characters used as devices to develop ideas in a text the first time I read the story (expect for obvious things like the Mockingbird pin, the contrast of most people starving in District 12 and the Capitol having plenty).  But the second time I read the book I did think more about characters like Prim.  Would the story have even happened if Prim wasn't chosen?   At the same time though, neither during the first or second reading did I challenge the validity and acceptability of images in the text. 

I certainly would LOVE to talk to others about this book (and the two other books in the trilogy).  I want to know why they love it as much as I do.   In the meantime, I'm going to keep thinking about this myself.  Maybe I will have more answers by class tonight (or by my next blog post).