[Greyson]

There have been many books and/or movies that I have identified with the protagonist. I have identified with both the male and female characters.

Starting with my childhood memories there were two books and movies that touched me deeply. "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" and "Little Women." I identified with Mary Frances Nolan in A Tree Grows In Brooklyn and Jo March in Little Women.

Both of these characters were strong and creative. I was just a child but what I saw in them was some sort of message telling me that I was okay. There were other "Tom Boys" like me and we could and would thrive regardless of life circumstances and the opinions and ideas of others. (Below I have cut and pasted an analysis of the two characters from a site called "Spark Notes.")

Mary Frances Nolan - The protagonist of the novel. Francie is the daughter of second-generation Americans living in Brooklyn, New York in the early twentieth century. She is named after her father's dead brother's fiancée. Francie is poor, but bright, observant, and taken by the wonders of the world. She is a combination of her hard-working, practical mother and her imaginative, dreaming father. She has a great capacity to see beauty amidst material hardship. Growing up without luxury, and sometimes without friends, she loves to read, and creates new worlds through her writing.

Jo March
The main character of Little Women, Jo is an outspoken tomboy with a passion for writing. Her character is based in large part on Louisa May Alcott herself. Jo refuses Laurie’s offer of marriage, despite the fact that everyone assumes they will end up together. In the end, Jo gives up her writing and marries Professor Bhaer, which can be seen either as a domestic triumph or as a professional loss, since Jo loses her headstrong independence.

Because she displays good and bad traits in equal measure, Jo is a very unusual character for nineteenth-century didactic fiction. Jo’s bad traits—her rebelliousness, anger, and outspoken ways—do not make her unappealing; rather, they suggest her humanity. Jo is a likely precursor to a whole slew of lovably flawed heroes and heroines of children’s books, among them Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer.