I stumbled across this thought provoking brief essay on Signature that highlights the plight, if that is a justifiable term, of literary heroins who ended up in a conventional life. The author Lisa Rosman ponders on the examples and probable causes of authors, specially female, who often extinguishing by adulthood the the kindle of hope they ignite in their heroin's youth.

A couple of beautifully written passages are shared below.

But it’s interesting, even disturbing that such ambitious lady authors couldn’t, with the exception of Lovelace, grant their literary stand-ins the sort of success they themselves achieved. "Doing so would have meant so much for the young girls dreaming of following in their footsteps."

"Say what you will, but if Katniss Everdeen excelled at writing rather than archery, you can bet your bottom dollar that she’d “write the book that made the great war,” as Lincoln once said of Harriet Beecher Stowe."