Literary Deaths...

If you're like me (and somehow, I doubt your are), you like to see characters killed off in books. I guesss I like my fiction to have a hint of reality in it. People die; it happens...especially when those people are involved in saving, changing, righting, destroying, etc the world. It would be really stupid (ooh, watch the vocabulary) for characters to constantly be in dangerous situations and always make it out. Anyway, some of my 'favorite' literary deaths usually involve secondary characters, and they only make the list if I really care when those characters die (for example, if I throw the book across the room or cry or run into the bathroom and interrupt my husband's shower to lament very loudly that Snape is a horrible, horrible man for killing Dumbledore- oops, gave that one away!)
So here are my top ten 'favorite' literary deaths...
Kathy Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights (Even though she and Heathcliff were scoundrels, I still wanted them to live happily ever after. I remember reading this book on Spring Break during my 8th grade year and just sobbing that she could never have a life with her true love.)
Paul Strobe in PS I Love You (This was the first book I stayed up all night reading. Yes, it's a Sweet Dreams book, and I was probably in Jr. High when a depressed and suffering Mariah met the perfect Paul Strobe, only to have him ripped from her by a terrible illness. I cried for days, literally days, over this one. This was probably the catalyst for my love of John Hughes movies in my teen years, where true love reigned supreme!)
MacDonagh, MacBride, Connolly, and Pearse in Easter, 1916 (This amazing poem by WB Yeats memorializes those who died as a result of the Easter Uprising in Ireland in 1916. I remember being moved to further research of the event and the literature that has been written about the Irish struggle for independence from England. Check out Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd.)
Lenny in Of Mice and Men (If you haven't read this, sorry for the spoiler!)
Johnny Gunther in Death Be Not Proud (Johnny's father wrote the memoir of his son's battle with cancer and ultimate death. To see this boy through his father's eyes is heart-wrenching.)
Barry's Father in Shaving (OK, this one is a little of a cheat since the father doesn't actually die in the short story- but you know he's going to. I don't remember if he's ever named; I don't think so. I've read this story and taught it many times. It's a wonderful heart-felt piece about a boy growing into manhood.)
Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Rings (Though he returns as Gandalf the White, I didn't know that the first time I read the books. I remember feeling stunned and hopeless as I knew Frodo and the fellowship were doomed without Gandalf to guide them. All hope was LOST! I was nearly 30 when I first read this book. "Fly, you fools!")
Thomas Hunter in the Circle Series (I like people to die in my Christian fiction- I know that's weird. In the Circle Series by Ted Dekker there's a scene filled with wonderful symbolism in which Thomas 'dies' by drowning. Epic!)
Rue in The Hunger Games (What I love about her death is that even though I saw it coming early on the book, I was still moved by what the author did with the scene. The rebellion of Katniss and her tenderness were so well-written.)
Finally, and I know this is cheating, but I have to include all the Harry Potter series. Her willingness to kill characters is one of the reasons I like Rowling. So, here we go... James and Lily, Cedric Diggory, Sirius Black, Dumbledore, Hedwig, Mad-Eye Moody, Dobby, Fred (This one nearly did me in. I actualy had to take a break before I ruined the book. Why, Fred?), Lupin, Tonks, Colin Crevey, and Severus Snape (perhaps my favorite character in all of literature). That's not all of them, but those are the ones I 'felt'.

HAPPY READING:)