Lessons from Book Characters

I was always warned to be wary of learning anything from a book that hadn't been verified in real life. There are, however, book characters that do a good job of embodying what we've been taught in real life. Here are some characters whose messages I've reality-checked. Top ten list, again starting with books I remember reading as a child: 

1. The Tar Baby in Walt Disney's America 

There are several different versions of the Tar Baby story. I first read it in the Disney movie commemoration books that came out around the time Walt D. died and I learned to read. Disney's Tar Baby was adapted from Joel Chandler Harris's. You might find a more modern version. I hope so, because I find the way Harris wrote dialect very off-putting. I can stand to listen to people who talk like that, or as close as real people living today get to it; I'm not willing to read it.

Anyway, the Tar Baby is an inanimate object dressed up to look like a human, set up as a trap for a pushy, bossy extrovert. All the other characters are so annoyed by Rabbit's obnoxious manners that they set up this Tar Baby. Sure enough, Rabbit speaks to the Tar Baby. When it doesn't answer, Rabbit hits it. Then he's stuck in the tar and the others can catch him and punish him. 

Moral: If you are a nice, quiet person minding your business, other people who don't mind their business but speak to you are likely to attack you, because they are not nice people. This is why Jesus told us not to be like the hypocrites who love greetings. A greeting that is not part of a real two-way conversation is a hostile act. This is so, so true. 

2. Wonder Woman in a lot of comic books my parents always refused to buy

Really beautiful women have black hair. Women with other types of hair can look good too, but straight black hair is the best kind. 

3. Helen Keller in her Story of My Life and various biographies 

Blind people can read Braille by touch. It's like this terrific secret code that they are willing to let you learn and use. However, in real life Braille is not written with the basic Braille alphabet that is included in most books about Helen Keller, so this information is not as useful as it first appeared. After reading a book about Helen Keller you can't read even the sign in an elevator in Braille. 

4. Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett 

If you are a Weepy Weed because you are still ill as a result of having had a disease that killed everyone else in your family, and you have a nice place to live with a lot of strangers some of whom are cousins but that's all you have, and you don't have any chemical sensitivities to worry about, just find a garden to fuss over and you will gradually become healthy and happy again. This is probably true but it is not applicable to children who are Weepy Weeds because they have chemical sensitivities. Being outdoors when chemicals are sprayed makes kids mopier. 

5. Sara Crewe in A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett 

If you are by nature a nice, quiet, intelligent, and charitable person, some people will like you. Then again some people will hate you just because others like you. Also, some people's attitudes toward you are based entirely on what they hope to get, not even from you but from your parents, so if they have just given you the best party and presents ever while planning to send an inflated bill to your Papa, and they hear that he's dead, don't expect them even to say "I was sorry to hear about your father" before they start trying to get that money out of you. You will get by with a little help from a few good friends, as long as you don't bog down in feelings about the people who never were and never would have been friends. 

6. Sham in King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry 

It is good to be patient and put up with disappointments. If you can't stand it any more and just have to vent some feelings on somebody, however, the best plan is to tear into someone who is much bigger than you are, in front of other people who will break up the fight before this person figures out what is going on and kills you by falling on top of you. Never hit anyone who looks as if you'd have a chance to win a fair fight with him, however much he deserves it. Save the aggression for Goliath. At least you will get so many points for style that it may take a long time for anyone to get around to punishing you, and if and when they do punish you, they'll come around. 

7. Nancy Drew (yes!) in The Mystery of the 99 Steps 

Nancy Drew Mysteries are easy to figure out. Bad people can always be spotted by their bad manners. Nancy learns things along the way, though, while she finds ways to prove the rule of crime solving for her world. In this particular book she learns that French is a real language, similar to Spanish. That Nancy Drew book, which Mother didn't want me to read, really did prepare me to enjoy the French books and records Mother wanted me to study next year. 

8. Charlie Brown in I forget which of the books of collected cartoons; an early one 

For as long as you run at that football, Lucy is going to pull it away. So if you go on playing with Lucy, you like her game. If you don't like the game other people are playing, step aside and don't play any more. 

9. Daniel Webster in "The Devil and Daniel Webster" 

Words change people. A writer has an important job. 

10. Anne Frank in The Diary of a Young Girl 

If you have books to read and paper to write on, you can get through anything. Even if you don't, people will find your writing and pour onto it all their feelings about your having died young.