What Are The Three-Dimensional Characters In The Raven Boys

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Well-written characters are the backbone of any novel. No one wants to read about people they don’t care about! The whole appeal of fiction is caring about protagonists; wincing in pain right along with them and feeling a joy second only to their own when everything is safe and sound. Readers live their strengths and weaknesses. Maggie Steifvater, author of The Raven Boys, has a gift in creating vivid three-dimensional characters. This particular series features Blue, the only non-psychic in a house full of the opposite. She meets Gansey, Adam, and Ronan who all attend Aglionby Academy, a haughty all-boys private school in their otherwise homely town of Henrietta, Virginia. Adventure, wit, ley lines, truth, and a bit of psychic-magic ensue. Below the surface of this clutching …show more content…

He says it himself- “I think you’ll find I do pretty much everything quiet” (193). Compared to unapologetic Blue or compelling Gansey, it’s easy to overlook him. It’s not that he’s shy; he doesn’t draw attention to himself because he’s afraid they’ll notice the fray on his secondhand Aglionby sweater or the not-so-faded swelling on his cheekbone. He laughs quietly because his dad is always hard-fisted and angry. He cries quietly because the neighbors don’t care about his bruises. He thinks quietly because it makes it easier to sort his emotions into logical containers. He even loves quietly because he doesn’t know how- “Adam pronounced love very carefully, as if it were an unfamiliar element on the periodic table,” (292). How could it be any different? But Blue, Gansey, and Ronan see him anyway- “Adam smiled cheerily. Ronan would start wars and burn cities for that true smile, elastic and amiable,” (206). It makes every word he says, everything he does so much more powerful. There’s a lot of value in silence in a world that is all kinds of loud. Adam is reserved because that’s who he is, and his friends appreciate him no matter

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