By Lily Bourne
#5 Holden Caulfield (Catcher in the Rye): Listen. I get it. He was troubled, he went through a lot. Sure. The truth of the matter is he was annoying. I do not want to read a book full of whining about how everyone in the world is fake. Maybe try therapy.
#4 The Pilots (The Right Stuff): While most of these guys didn’t do anything wrong, they rubbed me the wrong way. As explained in the “AP Lang Reading Review”, The Right Stuff just wasn’t worth the effort of reading. Similarly, these men were not worth the effort of remembering who was who, or getting invested in their masculine power dynamics that continually caused tension between them.
#3 Gatsby (The Great Gatsby): Honestly, I appreciated Gatsby’s commitment to his delusions and his propensity for extravagance. He remained fixated on a girl he could never get, which was relatable to a few classmates of mine, and that brought some humor into his character as a whole.
#2 Janie (Their Eyes Were Watching God): Being the only female main character we read about all year, Janie definitely gets points for representation on that front. Although she made some questionable decisions, I enjoyed reading about her different relationships and tribulations. Her character brought a unique perspective and her story proved an engaging read
#1 Pip (Great Expectations): Renowned by Elle Seguin, Regan Steele, and me as our favorite character, Pip provided everything we want in a protagonist. Like Gatsby, he was obsessed with someone who did not want him, but he also wanted to escape his poverty and become enormously wealthy. We appreciated his maturity as the narrator and his generous, good–hearted nature throughout the novel. While Pip had his ups and downs, he was consistently an interesting character to read about!