In this article, the author describes several innovative activities for engaging students in studies of literary characters: voting on superlatives for characters, creating characters' Facebook profiles, and composing creative dialogs in which characters from different works meet each other. The author points out that it is this self-knowledge that is the greatest gift of the time she and her students spend talking about characters. She sees this benefit frequently, when students share with her ways in which their examination of a character has revealed personal truths to them about themselves. These revelations are not always comfortable, but they always promote emotional and intellectual growth. The characters they meet within the pages of great stories are made out of the same stuff that they are, and when they seek to understand them, they gain moments of insight into themselves--into their own self-delusion, courage, deviousness, and innocence. These moments of insight cannot answer all the questions that confront them, but they can help them grapple with them and help them become, through the power of fiction, just a bit more likely to succeed. (Contains 5 figures.)