Protagonist

Character Role Analysis

Karen Blixen

When you have an autobiography, the list of possible protagonists drops very quickly. We see the story from Karen's point of view, root for her when the lions come a' chompin' and the fires start a blazin', and admire how strong she can be when the universe just keeps hitting her and, like Muhammad Ali, she just refuses to go down.

That, folks, is the making of a first-rate protagonist, and as it turns out, this one was a real live woman to boot. We're all the heroes in our own story, they say. Karen Blixen actually wrote hers down, and they even made it into a movie.