Friday 16 February 2018
Rave: Friendships
Happy Chinese New Year to all my fellow Chinese out there! This post is going to be primarily gifs of Friends because I have an obsession.
Everyone loves to have friends. It doesn't matter who you are, you don't like being alone. Just as long as there is that specific person you like being around is there, you don't mind what you guys are doing. Connection makes people happy, and sometimes we have to get that sense of connection through novels as we can't get any in real life, therefore friendships in books are really important.
Friendships in books are probably the most important thing in the characters life. Not only is it good for the reader to see the protagonist making connections, it also makes the reader feel more connected to the characters.
When an author wants to make you and the protagonist feel sad and isolated they take away their friends and family, leaving them completely dependant on themselves and that in turn makes the reader feel how much those friends and family members are important to the protagonist.
I find that if I'm reading a book and the protagonist doesn't have many outward connections, it can make the story feel isolated and I know that sometimes that is exactly what the author is trying to do. they are trying to make you feel the isolation that the character feels. Whenever I read a romance I like to look for a friendship somewhere in there as I feel like a lot of the time the romance authors can just forget about building up any relationship that isn't part of the love story. I've read so many romances where the protagonist wither doesn't have any friends or just ditches their friends to hang out with the super hot guy they barely know. This makes the story feel really flat to me.
When you're reading a book and the protagonist is in a sticky situation and they don't know what to do and they feel very alone, there needs to be that perfect character to help them through it. Maybe they don't know what they're doing but they make the protagonist not feel so alone. They create a support system which infinitely makes whatever the protagonist has to do that much simpler.
Friendships are also important because I feel like without them characters can make really bad decisions, with a friend they will have someone to bounce ideas off of or have someone to tell them when something is a terrible idea. It adds another layer to the story because you know that the protagonist will probably be okay because they have a good friend standing by them.
It's really just the best aspect of a characters life to have those they love. Love interests will come and go, but as Phoebe Buffay says, friendship is forever.
Thoughts?
Feel free to add me on social media! And you can follow my blog in the sidebar to be notified when I post!
Follow @Bookballistic0 Follow
Labels:
fiction,
friends,
friendship,
new adult,
rant or rave,
rave,
Young adult
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
"I feel like a lot of the time the romance authors can just forget about building up any relationship that isn't part of the love story"
ReplyDeleteYes, exactly! I mean, I love a romance, but I also want to see the characters establish different bonds with people. I want to see siblings, and best friends, and friends, and allies, and a long et cetera.
My favorite books, I've realized after reading your post, have that in common: the characters have or form different connections not just romantic ones (like in the Kate Daniels or October Daye series, any book by Sarah Rees Brennan, the Raven Cycle, the Six of Crows duology...).
More character driven books and more variety of relationships, please!!!