Jack Daw: Character Connection

Don’t you just love larger-than-life characters? The ones who jump off the page and grab you? Whether you love them or hate them, you can’t be indifferent to them.

I would love to know about the characters who just won’t leave you! Most of you will probably post about how much you love (or loathe) each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Write a love poem in elvish for Aragorn. Draw a picture of Harry obliterating Voldemort. The possibilities are endless.

Be sure to post the book’s title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters.

Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday.

Someplace to be Flying by Charles de Lint is probably my favorite fantasy novel, and one of my favorite characters in the book is Jack Daw. “He was a tall, gangly man, all long legs and arms, smooth-shaven and raven-haired, with skin a few shades darker than her own coffee-and-cream complexion. His cowboy boots were black. His jeans were an old and faded gray, shirt black, as were the flat-brimmed hat and duster he invariably wore.”

Jack is a storyteller. Even though he’s telling impossible stories that have their roots in Native American creation myths, he’s such a great storyteller that while he’s talking, you believe every word he says. Raven created the world by stirring his pot? Sure, he did. Coyote wants to steal that pot and causes all kind of trouble as he tries? We know it. We believe because he believes.

Which leads to the interesting part of Jack’s character. One prosaic character says that Jack tells these stories to make the world make sense. But he’s consistent and puts himself in his stories. What if what he says is true? What if all of these animal spirits really exist? What if he’s really one of them?

A Jackdaw Photo taken by Lestat

Jack’s usually more interested in telling about other people than about himself, but enough comes through that you know something horrible went down in his past. Something he tries his best to forget.

But in the present day, he’s a pretty chill guy. He just likes to tell his stories and live at the margins of society. He doesn’t really feel like he has anything to prove to anyone. He also takes people as they are. He would give anyone the shirt off his back. But that thing in his past that he won’t talk about? You get the feeling that it has as much to do with his own actions as it does with what others did to him. There’s a darkness in Jack Daw. He fights it and tries his best to live in Grace, but it’s definitely there.  More tellingly, he speaks longingly of Grace.  Anyone who seeks Grace like Jack does just has to be one of the good guys.

On a side note, let me say that I adore John Jude Palencar’s artwork.  Just look at that cover up there.  Love.  It.

Who did you connect with this week? Link your post on Mr. Linky, then be sure to go check out the other Character Connections!