Top Five Favorite Fictional Characters -- Literature

I haven't made a list in a while and I'm on a trip with my wife, so no ministry posts for a while. I did make a statement on Sunday that sparked a need for a list though. I said that in my opinion, Aslan, from the Chronicles of Narnia series, was the finest literary fictional character. Here's a list of the top five.

1. Aslan -- The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Anthropomorphism (giving human characteristics to any animal or object) isn't the right niche for Aslan. He goes way beyond that -- it's actually the other way around. The lion speaks to the humanity in this regard. In the obvious allegory of the Narnia series, Aslan is Jesus and the ferocity, anger, resolve and wrath of the Aslan is perfecly balanced by his gentleness, kindness and meekness. He is the picture of the marriage between the Jesus seen in Revelation and the Jesus seen in John.

"'Safe?' said Mr. Beaver...'Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe, but he's good. He's the King, I tell you.'" -- Mr. Beaver, speaking of Aslan

2. Kerbouchard -- The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour
"The name has a ring to it!" Scoff if you will at this creator of wild west tales of chilvalry and justice, The Walking Drum is quality literature. Set in middle ages Europe and the Middle East, Kerbouchard, a Celt by birth, wanderer of the world and seeker of his father's justice lives an adventure that takes him from slave on a ship to adviser to kings. War, intrigue, romance, betrayal, friendship -- all are inherent in the Kerbouchard's DNA and story. But more than anything, he is a learner, a seeker of truth, always learning and never arriving. It was Kerbouchard who sparked my interest in classic literature and sold me on reading and adventure. A man's man.

"It has seemed to me that each year one should pause to take stock of himself, to ask: Where am I going? What am I becoming? What do I wish to do and become? Most people whom I have encountered were without purpose, people who had given themselves no goal. The first goal need not be the final one, for a sailing ship sails first by one wind, then another. The point is that it is always going somewhere, proceeding towards a final destination." -- Kerbouchard

3. Billy Colman -- Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
I first read this book when I was ten or eleven. I think it was the first classic piece of literature I ever read and the first book I ever cried about. Billy is a the main character of the story -- a complex yet simple boy with an insatiable desire for adventure growing up in the Ozark mountains. He wants to be a coon hunter, so he works and saves for two years to buy two hound dogs, Old Dan and Little Ann and they become a champion coon hunting team. Living all kinds of adventures together, the story ends with the death of the Old Dan and Little Ann protecting Billy from a mountain lion ("devil cat of the Ozarks"). Billy had heart and guts. He chopped down a huge tree in order to get a coon out of it and win his dogs' trust. So I got my grandad's axe, headed out into the woods and began chopping down a ridiculous tree. Took me five days to fell it -- but I wasn't about to not be like Billy. Heart and guts.

"Lying back in the soft hay, I folded my hands behind my head, closed my eyes, and let my mind wander back over the two long years. I thought of the fishermen, the blackberry patches, and the huckleberry hills. I thought of the prayer I had said when I asked God to help me get two hound pups. I knew He had surely helped, for He had given me the heart, courage, and determination." -- Billy

4. Gandalf -- The Lord Of The Rings Series by J.R.R. Tolkien
Power. Wisdom. Humility. Shadowfax. Establisher of kings. Leadership. Sight. Forward-thinking. Glamdring. Stubborn. Re-born. All things I deeply long for. At this point in my life, Gandalf is who I long to be.

"I threw down my Enemy and he fell from his high place and broke the mountain-side where he smote it in his ruin." -- Gandalf

5. Josephine "Jo" March -- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Let me say right off the get-go here, that every movie made about this book is horrible. Do not watch the movies, read the books. It is not a primer on feminism, it is a primer on relationships, priorities and beauty. Alcott is a relational genius when it comes to writing. I loved the book Little Women when I had to read it for an English assignment in high school. I didn't have the guts to say so at the time, but I've read it three or four times. And in doing so, I developed a major crush on Jo. Without knowing it, Jo became my picture of the perfect girl, and eventually the perfect wife. She was not even close to perfect, but she embraced life, love, heart, and imagination with beauty and enthusiastic grace. And I definitely married a Jo. Sheri is all of those things, but obviously without the fictional twist. The confident beauty and grace with which she embraces life is a dream come true for me. I can't believe she's mine.

"Wouldn't it be fun if all the castles in the air which we make could come true and we could live in them?" -- Jo