Book Challenge -- Day 3

3: Saddest character death

I still remember the first time I read Aslan's death in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I was at first stunned at how easily he went to slaughter, and how Susan and Lucy allowed him to die for them, then angry with Aslan for giving up his role in the revolution to fight. He was probably the first character I remember being actually upset about. I now understand why Aslan had to die, but am still relieved every time he comes back to life.
     The character I remember actually crying and having to set down the book and come back to was Hedwig. She was with Harry from the beginning and cared for him unconditionally--the movies don't show it as well as the books, but Hedwig was the only friend Harry had at Privet Drive. The frustration that anyone could harm, let alone kill, a creature that had little to no efficacy in the story was overwhelming; Hedwig was for moral support, and yes, she made letter-writing a little easier, but she didn't have an irreplaceable role in the fight against Voldemort and his Death Eaters.  Most lingeringly I remember the deaths of the hound dogs in Where the Red Fern Grows as being sad, it was sixth grade, so I'm not sure how I'd feel about it now. The puppy with his innards coming out is heartbreaking. Really any book where the pet dies a horrible death is sad and miserable, and people should stop doing that!
     From my favorite novel, A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle, Binnie is a little girl with epilepsy whose father doesn't believe in medication. The entire novel centers around death and loss and what it means to actually live in the face of eventual extinction, so I understand why L'Engle has this child and her illness appear. While the main character is dealing with her grandfather's slow death she is plunged into depression when a beautiful little girl she meets in the hospital dies in her arms after an epileptic fit. Binnie's death is so unexpected in the context of the story that all the tension surrounding loss is suddenly focused in the one event.
     Really any story where a character is either slowly or pointlessly (in the story's universe) killed off is sad. Aslan was a character I became attached to quickly and easily; Hedwig and the dogs from Red Fern were loyal and had no reason to be killed other than they were in the wrong place at the wrong time; and Binnie was a bright child and had so much she could have lived for, but was killed through no fault or choice of her own. I understand the phenomenon as a plot device, but it still upsets me every time.