The Belgariad 3

Going back to what I said in my previous post, Garion does do some things that are close to being human. For a great while, the book describes Garion as playing with his childhood friends, and experiencing different emotions and thoughts, which are some of what I vaguely remember. One of the things that he does, is try to reenact different stories he has heard, and playing them out with his friends, having adventure and sword fights with pot, pans, sticks, and other household items. Garion goes through different emotions, such as anger and love. When Garion is hit by his friend when they are playing, Garion becomes upset and starts to hit back irrationally. He also experiences love and romance with a girl named Zubrette, who leads the other boys on for her own benefit, and when Garion realizes this, he is crushed, which I see all the time at school when people break up, which is a very common occurrence.

With the topic of characters being real, I think Pol is another example of how someone could act in real life. Pol is the stereotypical "mother, but not really your mother" character, who wants to protect and raise Garion, but not really act as if he was her child, because he isn't. She seems to always be doing something productive, or act resourcefully, like having the children do things for her around the farm, or help her cook. Cooking is something that is associated with Pol early in the book, and it is her "greatest talent", which is almost sort of foreshadowing for later in the book when the whole magical, supernatural theme is introduced, because her food is considered the best around. While Pol isn't the most nurturing at all times, she still knows when to help Garion when he is in emotional crisis, such as his interactions with Zubrette and his disappointment, and doesn't make him learn everything on his own.

Just because a book is fantasy, doesn't mean the character should be written as an over the top, crazy powerful genius with magical unicorn allies and dragons and hellfire and such, right? Sometimes I find it easier to read a book that you can relate the characters to people you know in real life.