Who Is The Protagonist In 'Adelaide' And What Drives Them?

The protagonist in 'Adelaide' is a woman named Adelaide herself, a former war medic turned recluse living in a post-apocalyptic world. What drives her is survival and the ghosts of her past. She's haunted by the patients she couldn't save during the war, and now she's determined to protect the few people left in her isolated community. Her medical skills make her invaluable, but it's her guilt that pushes her to take insane risks. She's not some chosen one or hero—just a broken person trying to make up for her failures. The wasteland forces her to make brutal choices, but she keeps going because giving up would mean betraying everyone she's lost.

Adelaide is one of those protagonists who stays with you long after you finish reading. She's a complex mix of resilience and vulnerability, a healer in a world that's stopped believing in healing. The story follows her as she navigates a landscape ravaged by both war and a mysterious plague. What drives her isn't just survival—it's the need to prove that humanity is worth saving.

Her background as a medic gives her a unique perspective. While others see the infected as threats to eliminate, she sees patients who might be cured. This puts her at odds with both the remaining military forces and the desperate civilians. The novel brilliantly explores how her medical ethics clash with the harsh realities of survival. Her driving force shifts throughout the story—from personal redemption to protecting a young orphan she takes under her wing, to uncovering the truth about the plague's origins.

What makes Adelaide stand out is how her motivations feel organic. She doesn't want to lead or be a hero; circumstances force her into that role. The more she tries to stay detached, the deeper she gets pulled into the conflicts around her. The author does an amazing job showing how her compassion becomes both her greatest strength and most dangerous weakness in this brutal world.

Let me tell you about Adelaide—the most stubborn protagonist I've encountered in recent fiction. She's not your typical survivor; she's a walking contradiction. A medic who hates blood, a cynic who keeps helping people, and a loner who somehow ends up with a found family. What drives her? Pure spite at first. The world ended, her superiors abandoned their posts, and she's determined to outlast them all just to prove something.

But as the story progresses, her motivations deepen. There's this heartbreaking moment where she realizes she's not just surviving—she's choosing to live. The novel plays with the idea of purpose in a meaningless world. Adelaide starts taking risks to protect this ragtag group of survivors not because it's logical, but because she needs them as much as they need her. The beauty is in how subtle her transformation is. One day she's patching up a stranger's wound, the next she's leading a rebellion against the corrupt remnants of the government. Her drive evolves from self-preservation to something far more compelling—the refusal to let decency die in this new world.