First-Class Males in Fiction

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Elijah Wood as Frodo and Sean Astin as Sam in The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy (2001, 2002, 2003).

Last week, I wrote about fictional female characters who are brave, strong-willed, etc. This week, I’ll do the same for fictional male characters – whether their courage is physical, mental, and/or moral.

One such inspiring guy is Sydney Carton of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. In that 1859 novel, Carton is a less-than-admirable man who wants to do better – which moves him to make an almost unfathomably heroic sacrifice during the French Revolution.

Ten years later, R.D. Blackmore’s 1869 novel Lorna Doone co-starred John Ridd, who does all kinds of courageous things after falling in love with the title character. Romance can be an incentive that way. 🙂

Staying with 19th-century literature, Walter Scott’s Rob Roy (1817) features a title character partly based on real-life outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor – who has been called “the Scottish Robin Hood.”

Moving to the 20th century, we of course have various heroic males in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy (1954-1955) – including the hobbits Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee. Impressive when physically small-of-stature beings are valiant against larger foes.

A lesser-known novel is Louis L’Amour’s Last of the Breed (1986) starring Native-American military pilot Joe Mack as he makes a daring on-foot escape from capture in the vast Siberian wilderness.  

A much-better-known novel is Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), in which Alabama attorney Atticus Finch bravely defends an innocent Black man in the racist 1930s American South.

Moving to 21st-century fiction, African-American attorney Malcolm Bannister is incredibly clever and resourceful after being wrongly charged and jailed in John Grisham’s 2012 novel The Racketeer.

Count Alexander Rostov of Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow (2016) is stoic and quietly courageous while serving a lifetime sentence of house arrest in a hotel.

Private investigator Cormoran Strike of J.K. Rowling’s series of eight (so far) crime novels published between 2013 and 2025 is far from timid as he pursues wrongdoers while dealing with the painful partial loss of a leg from when he was deployed in Afghanistan. 

Straddling the 20th and 21st centuries:

Walter Mosley’s private investigator Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, star of the ongoing series that began with Devil in a Blue Dress in 1990, is quite gutsy in a low-key way. 

Lee Child’s roving Jack Reacher character, who was first introduced to readers in 1997, is fearless as he deals with various bad guys in 30 (and counting) novels.

Your thoughts about, and examples of, this theme?

In our dimly lit garage, Misty the cat says: “Here’s where Joseph Conrad wrote ‘Heart of Darkness.'”

My comedic 2024 book — the part-factual/part-fictional/not-a-children’s-work Misty the Cat…Unleashed — is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )

This 90-second promo video for the book features a talking cat: 🙂

I’m also the author of a 2017 literary-trivia book…

…and a 2012 memoir that focuses on cartooning and more, including many encounters with celebrities.

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece – about high housing costs, the end of free tuition, and a failed candidacy — is here.

56 thoughts on “First-Class Males in Fiction”

  1. What a fantastic selection, dear Dave!

    It’s interesting to see how courage changes over the centuries.

    In Italian literature, a great example of moral and silent courage in the face of injustice is a friar, Fra Cristoforo, from The Betrothed. He transforms his past mistakes into a courageous defense of the weak.

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    • Thank you, Luisa! Glad you liked the post!

      Fra Cristoforo sounds like a VERY memorable character. It’s so inspiring when someone in fiction or real life acts in a redemptive way to try to atone for past missteps.

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  2. Hi Dave, here’s a couple of thoughts. There are many wonderful mysteries featuring an English police detective called Adam Dalgliesh. The books were written by the great P.D. James, and I think I have read all of those.

    Another police detective, this one from Sweden is called Kurt Wallander and very good too, with several series. These books were written by Henning Mankell, pity he’s not around anymore.

    I felt I had to mention this: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, but also I thought about this – I am Legend by Richard Matheson, and there’s only one person alive in this, he’s name is Robert Neville – some garlic, perhaps, as he asked to himself?

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    • Thank you, Chris! I’ve read only one P.D. James mystery (“The Lighthouse”), but found Adam Dalgliesh to be a great character.

      Richard Matheson is an excellent author! While I have mixed feelings about Hemingway’s novels, he did create some memorable male characters — also including Robert Jordan in “For Whom the Bell Tolls.”

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  3. Hi Dave!

    Thank you for the interesting post. Nothing jumps out in particular when it comes to ‘first-class’ males in fiction. Except to say if they do the right thing, then they are ‘first class’ to me! If that makes any sense!! 😆

    I am drawn to Louis L’Amour’s; ‘Last of the Breed’. It sounds very interesting. Also, ‘The Racketeer’ by John Grisham. I have heard a lot of positive things about ‘The Racketeer’ and I plan to read it at some point.

    Thanks Dave, your post has got me thinking!!

    With best wishes,

    Sharon 😀

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  4. What an intriguing post! I have never actually read Lord of the Rings, Dave! Sometimes I feel like the only person who hasn’t, although I’ve seen the films. I think diverse male protagonists are important in literature (although I can’t think of any!).

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  5. Gee Dave, you set a high bar here by starting with Sydney Carton, then Atticus Finch and all in between and after.

    Hold on to your hat! Perry Mason. Yes, he helped people, but his big heroic was that for a character written initially in the 1930’s, his secretary was a partner, an equal. Women were not lesser, but equal in his world. (equally capable of murder, as well)

    Rhett Butler – GWTW

    Sherlock Holmes

    Gilbert Blythe – Anne of Green Gables

    Romeo ( a play, but I thought I’d trty)

    Okay.. time to sew and watch….LOL… Perry Mason. I’m on season 4. (They ran out of the books now, and are penning their own scripts)

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    • Thank you, Resa, for all the great examples — including Perry Mason! An iconic character, and a bonus that he was less sexist than most (fictional or real-life) men of his time. But as good an attorney as Perry was, could he have gotten Gilbert exonerated after young Blythe called Anne Shirley “carrots.” 🤔 🙂

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  6. Stepping away from the classics a bit, how about John Smith, the main character of Stephen King’s The Dead Zone? He is a good man who acquires a psychic ability after a terrible accident. He tries to use it for good, but it’s definitely a mixed blessing.

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  8. This is a great post, Dave. Great subject, excellent examples and enjoyable comments. You mentioned one from Dickens. I would add Bob Cratchit. I would also add The Time Traveler from H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine. In the movie, they called him George, but he didn’t have a name in the original book. But he went back, and I think that’s pretty special.

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    • Thank you, Dan! Yes…definitely Bob Cratchit, and a number of other Dickens characters, such as Sam Weller of “The Pickwick Papers” and Joe Gargery of “Great Expectations,” are also admirable.

      I agree that “The Time Machine” protagonist is a brave guy!

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  9. Oh – fun! The first character coming to mind? Gilbert Blythe…from Montgomery’s “Anne of Green Gables”. A beloved book I re-read – every year or so – just because. So charming, flawed and endearing, dear Gilbert. Thanks much for another wonderful line-up here, Dave. Happy Sunday! 💝💝💝

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  10. Atticus would be my go-to, of course, Dave, but he’s everybody else’s too, so others are required. How about Sidney Kirkwood, from George Gissing’s ‘The Nether World’? Initially he has a love for Clara Hewett, but she’s ambitious and leaves to pursue her dream of a life on the stage. Then Sidney develops a deeper feeling for Jane Snowdon, who loves him too; but circumstances conspire to keep them apart, and out of a sense of honour he marries Clara, who’s returned damaged and disfigured. Then there’s Giles Winterborne, of Hardy’s ‘The Woodlanders’, who loses his love Grace to a socially-superior but dishonourable doctor yet still loses his health and ultimately his life to protect her reputation. They’ll do for now, but if I come up with any more I’ll be back. Thanks for a great and thought-provoking post – as usual! 🙂

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  11. I just finished Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow and loved it. Count Alexander Rostov is a most admirable male character. I would add, Mr Darcy from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. He doesn’t start out well, but proves himself to be a first-class character. He is just a very introverted person, and misunderstood by the other characters, especially Elizabeth Bennet.

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    • Thank you, Darlene! Glad you got to read “A Gentleman in Moscow”! One of my favorite 21st-century novels. And, yes, some characters like Mr. Darcy become better people and/or make a better impression as the book goes on. Also Sydney Carton (as mentioned in my post), Ebenezer Scrooge, etc.

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  12. Dave, you’ve reminded me that “strength” is a much richer word than we often assume. We usually think of physical courage, but some of literature’s strongest characters possess moral courage, quiet endurance, or the willingness to change. Odysseus immediately came to my mind. Although he is certainly courageous, what has always impressed me is his resilience. After years of hardship, loss, and temptation, he never loses sight of home. His strength is as much about endurance and resourcefulness as it is about heroism.

    And, perhaps surprisingly, so did Goethe’s Faust. He begins believing that knowledge is strength, only to discover that wisdom, compassion, and meaning are the greater challenge.

    I also have a soft spot for Don Quixote. His strength lies in continuing to imagine a better world, even when others see only windmills. Literature reminds us that courage wears many faces. I love this quote from Don Quixote: “Too much sanity may be madness. And maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be.”

    Another great topic. I look forward to the follow-up discussion.

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    • Thank you, Rebecca! Three great mentions of characters from long-ago or VERY long-ago literature! Don Quixote does indeed have some strength in his whimsical/eccentric way — and lots of good-heartedness. As for Odysseus, he (in the guise of Matt Damon) of course stars in a major motion picture that will be released in a few days.

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      • I’m looking forward to seeing how they interpret Odysseus on the screen. It will be fascinating to see how a story that has endured for nearly three thousand years is told for a modern audience. Have you ever noticed that so much of today’s literature still bears the fingerprints of ancient stories?

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  14. Oh, Dave I think I will never forget Atticus Finch in To kill a Mockingbird or Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad but I would like to read a Gentleman in Moscow! At the moment I’m reading Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis and the maincharacter seems to me quite headstrong. Many thanks for your always helpful book suggestions:)

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