Character Crypt

Posted by SarahBella in Character Discussion | 0 comments

Sookie Character Discussion

There is so much to be said about Sookie Stackhouse, most of it positive.  She’s a real sized girl (meaning not a size two), average (or slightly better than average) looking with a slightly crazy family (her brother turns into a half panther), her friends are slightly crazier than her family (most of them drink blood and several of them change into animals at the full moon) and she reads minds, learning all kinds of personal things – whether she wants to or not.

That’s a full plate for anyone, but especially for a ‘twenty something barmaid’ from Louisiana who recently led to her Grandmothers death, who then got kidnapped in Dallas, broke up with her Vampire boyfriend (who took her virginity), rescued said boyfriend from the clutches of his evil mother/ex-girlfriend, harbored a 1000 year old vampire fugitive, got a new boyfriend (a were), broke up with the new boyfriend; you get the picture.  Her best (human) friend, Tara Thornton, is flaky and unreliable half the time.

Her boss, Sam Merlotte, is a true Were, able to take the shape of whichever animal he last saw.   He is also one of the very few absolutely reliable and true friends that Sookie has.  He complicates things by having romantic feelings for her, but he always come through in a pinch.

So where does Sookie stand in the cosmic scheme of things?  Sookie’s got a lot going on but she copes as best she can.   She’s telepathic, with the (mostly) exception of vampires.  Until recently, she was a twenty-six year old virgin (imagine sleeping with someone while hearing them think about how fat your thighs are).   She’s tenacious (she’d have to be , really), she’s smart, stubborn, sweet, funny, and has her hand in every supernatural thing in Louisiana (as well as some in Dallas and Las Vegas).  She always looks for the good in people, even if they don’t deserve it.

Thanks to her telepathy and her job at the bar, Sookie has a better than average grasp of true human nature.  She knows what to expect from people, and she’s rarely disappointed – only because she doesn’t expect much.   Her life has really been a series of let downs, from her parents death, to her grandmothers death, her boyfriend cheating, then being abandoned by one of her closest friends; Sookie has learned not to set her expectations too high.

On the flipside, Sookie tends to make the same mistakes twice.  She always gives people a second chance, whether they’ve earned one or not.  She also has slightly whorish tendencies, hopping from guy to guy – Bill, Eric, Alcide, Quinn… And that’s just in the first eight books.

Sookie is mostly shunned by the people in the town she grew up in.  They don’t want to acknowledge her gift, but they can’t really ignore the proof, either.  For the most part, the townspeople of Bon Temps treat Sookie like a red headed stepchild – unwanted, but tolerated.  They are openly scornful of her, until they need something from her.   The people in town who do care about her (human and supe alike) love her with a fierce loyalty that she earns in spades.

Poor Sookie’s been trying to figure out where she fits in for most of her life.  She had just about given up her search when Bill Compton sat down at a table in her section of Merlotte’s.  She’s getting closer to finding out where she belongs, but for now, the humans still think she’s too different, and the ‘others’ think she’s not different enough.

I think we could all aspire to be a little more like Sookie; so say what you really think, believe that you look good in what you’re wearing, go after what you want (be it man or beast ;)) and sometimes, leap without looking.