What is wrong with Jane?
She's as interesting (and self absorbed) as Carrie Bradshaw -- well, minus the sex.
She's not much to look at. But she could be, perhaps, but it's possible she is so self absorbed she doesn't even know it. Maybe we should ask Collin.
She's kind and resourceful. A regular Girl Scout.
No dark side. I like heroines to be saints. I like Jane Eyre. Mr. Rochester had enough dark side for all of them. I like the Japanese businessman and his translator Jen in Bel Canto. They are good men, reserved, focused on surviving rather than rescuing -- but I'm only 100 pages into the book (it's the third time but I never remember how it ends for everybody).
And I actually like people who live well though in small ways. The kind that get up early to see the sun rise. Or who talk to small children or open the door for the person behind them.
One of my favorite stories is about St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, SJ. He wasn't educated enough and he was too old (35) to be a full-fledged Jesuit out preaching the Gospel and changing the world. He answered the door at a Jesuit house in Majorca. And he answered every ring of the door bell "I'm coming, Jesus." He treated everyone with the same kindness.
Alphonsus befriended a young Jesuit filled with zeal, Peter Claver. Alphonsus encouraged the future saint to go to South America. Peter took his advice and went to Cartagena. Talk about heroism. He made it his business to board every slave ship as it pulled into port, bringing water and comfort to the Africans chained in the hold. Other people called these enslaved people just cargo, but Peter Claver saw their humanity and did what he could to ease their suffering.
What makes a hero? And how does it differ from the hero of a novel? Does Jane have to be "bigger" than she is so far? Can her small, quiet ways support a whole book that someone besides me will read?
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