Rebels (Top Ten Tuesday)

The bloggers at The Broke & The Bookish's Tuesday blog hop ask us to offer up our top ten "Rebels in literature (The people who stood up for what they believed in despite the cost of doing so.)"

Despite the fact that the explanation doesn't exactly fit my idea of a rebel, I'll give it a go!

That said, if we're going by the Broke and The Bookish's definition, let's put Severus Snape on the list, shall we?  He spent nearly his entire life as at the thankless task of double-agent, and what did he get for his pains?  A lifetime of torture at seeing Harry Potter, the orphaned child of the love-of-Snape's-life and his greatest rival, gain all the applause that he, by virtue of his covert role, could never hope to receive.  Now that is a high cost for doing what's right. 

And how about the author Salman Rushdie?  Years in hiding because you dare to publish a book that one powerful ayatollah considers sacrilegious.  And then, to have the guts to say, "Enough!  I'm going to free myself from exile, come what may!"  Pretty gutsy for a current-day writer.

Joan D'Arc in George Bernard Shaw's St. Joan.  Defying the State in service to her God: I think martyrdom would definitely qualify her under the definition of rebel we're cleaving to here.

Henry Bright in Josh Ritter's new Bright's Passage.  Marry the daughter of a powerful - and deranged - man who hates you, then burn your house down to keep him from touching your now-dead wife's memory while you escape with your newborn son so her father can't touch him either.  Risk all for love: rebel.

Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath.  Making every sacrifice necessary to defend the working poor: rebel with a cause.  And Ma Joad too for making every sacrifice necessary to feed her family and to keep them looking toward the future when the present seems impossibly bleak.

Taylor Rene Krystal Hawkins, Miss Teen Dream Texas in Beauty Queens, Libba Bray's newest young adult satire/parody.  When Taylor finally "gets it", she's not just a rebel, she's a rebel with a vengeance.  (Stay tuned: full review here on Thurs. or Fri....)   And then again, so's Petra and so's Adina and so are quite a few of the other characters in this "Survivor" meets "Miss America" mash-up.  (More said would surely spoil the story...)

And finally, Father Damien in Louise Erdrich's The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse.  What she/he believes in may sometimes seem shocking,  but he/she never lets go of the quest for the truth....

Who's on your list of rebels today?

MFB,
L