# Deliberately dim, sympathetic protagonists in non-comedies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 12, 2024, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deliberately-dim-sympathetic-protagonists-in-non-comedies/1011549 "2024-12-12T11:33:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2024, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deliberately-dim-sympathetic-protagonists-in-non-comedies/1011549/1 "2024-12-12T11:33:04Z")
Last night my wife told me about the book she was reading, a gothic novel in which the protagonist is just dumb as hell. The problem, she said, is that the author _thinks_ it’s a smart protagonist, and it’s infuriating. I love me a book with a smart protagonist, who wends their way skillfully through the novel’s twists and turns and puzzles. I hate me a book where the author _tries_ to write a smart protagonist, but the protagonist is a dumbass. But what about books where the protagonist is just not very bright, and it’s not played for laughs? The only one I can think of (just thought of as I started typing this) is _The Daughter’s War_, a military fantasy that turned out to be one of my favorite books of the year. The first-person novel is written simply and directly in the voice of a soldier who has many great qualities, but they don’t include a crafty, devious mind. How do y’all feel about dim protagonists? Are there other good examples? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2024, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deliberately-dim-sympathetic-protagonists-in-non-comedies/1011549/2 "2024-12-12T11:52:14Z")
_[Flowers for Algernon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowers_for_Algernon)_ at the start and end of the story. _[The Fallible Fiend](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fallible_Fiend)_ by L. Sprague de Camp perhaps counts (not sure if it qualifies as “comedic” or not). The demonic protagonist is explicitly not that smart and highly literal minded; it’s theorized that demons simply don’t _need_ to evolve human level intelligence since they can lean on their physical superiority. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2024, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deliberately-dim-sympathetic-protagonists-in-non-comedies/1011549/3 "2024-12-12T12:03:54Z")
Ignatius J. Reilly In Confederacy of Dunces might be well educated, but he is socially clueless and makes a series of idiotic choices. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2024, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deliberately-dim-sympathetic-protagonists-in-non-comedies/1011549/4 "2024-12-12T12:11:04Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > But what about books where the protagonist is just not very bright, and it’s not played for laughs? The movie character Forrest Gump springs to mind, but I haven’t read the book that the movie is based on, so I don’t know whether that would count or not. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2024, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deliberately-dim-sympathetic-protagonists-in-non-comedies/1011549/5 "2024-12-12T13:40:19Z")
In _The Newcomes_ by William Makepeace Thackeray, Clyde Newcome is a good-looking, likeable young man who is academically unsuccessful and who ends up as an unsuccessful artist. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2024, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deliberately-dim-sympathetic-protagonists-in-non-comedies/1011549/6 "2024-12-12T15:42:55Z")
Lenny from _Of Mice and Men_. ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2024, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deliberately-dim-sympathetic-protagonists-in-non-comedies/1011549/7 "2024-12-13T19:06:29Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > _[Flowers for Algernon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowers_for_Algernon)_ at the start and end of the story. First book I can remember that made me cry like a baby. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2024, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deliberately-dim-sympathetic-protagonists-in-non-comedies/1011549/8 "2024-12-13T19:52:55Z")
Arthur Dent in _The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy_ isn’t really dumb, but he’s not some clever protagonist either. He just kind of goes along for the ride. While he’s not specifically played for laughs, the entire book is, so maybe this doesn’t fit. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2024, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deliberately-dim-sympathetic-protagonists-in-non-comedies/1011549/9 "2024-12-13T20:02:38Z")
Another maybe fits, maybe doesn’t entry: Chauncey Gardiner in _Being There_. He isn’t played for laughs, but his narrative purpose is to mock everyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2024, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deliberately-dim-sympathetic-protagonists-in-non-comedies/1011549/10 "2024-12-13T20:11:37Z")
Farrington, the lazy alcoholic scrivener in James Joyce’s short story “Counterparts.” ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2024, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deliberately-dim-sympathetic-protagonists-in-non-comedies/1011549/11 "2024-12-13T20:13:15Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Lenny from _Of Mice and Men_. And Benjy from _The Sound and the Fury_. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2024, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deliberately-dim-sympathetic-protagonists-in-non-comedies/1011549/12 "2024-12-13T20:56:01Z")
“Dim” may be a stretch, but Demon Copperhead (in the book of the same name) isn’t particularly clever. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deliberately-dim-sympathetic-protagonists-in-non-comedies/1011549/13 "2024-12-17T04:48:45Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > But what about books where the protagonist is just not very bright, and it’s not played for laughs? It maybe doesn’t quite fit, but Hastings out-Watsons Watson when it comes to Poirot: putting a book’s worth of first-person narration out there while trying to solve a mystery like he’s the protagonist in a detective novel, only to keep reaching incorrect conclusions in front of the brilliant sleuth who then patiently explains stuff to him. (And, like I kind of glossed over there, he doesn’t even get to supply something like medical-insight exposition so the great man can then extrapolate a clever deduction from it; he just, y’know, makes some mistakes while trying to figure things out.)