Among the more prevalent trends in film, television, and literature is that of the antihero. While good guys used to be good guys and bad guys used to be bad guys, now the good guy can also be somewhat of a bad guy, and the bad guy can have some redeeming qualities. Much has been made to how and why antiheroes have become more common. As for the how – popularity leads to followers, so if something works it is going to be copied. The why is more difficult, but in simplest terms – antiheroes are both more fun to read, and more challenging. They are fun because they are unpredictable, and they are challenging because they push the audience to question their support.
Since stories are among the many mediums used for escapism, the best characters are ideally ones different from the reader. An office worker does not want to read a story about an office worker; they want to read about an adventure hero, or a suave romantic – someone who is not just stapling documents and scanning files like they are. The preferred protagonist used to be the unequivocal good guy – a friendly, well-groomed stranger who wore a white cowboy hat and saved women tied to railroad tracks. There were never any added dimensions to the lead character because there was no need for them. Heroes gave the audience someone to root for. But as the times changed, the archetypal hero became less and less interesting. As Eric Deggans wrote in “Television’s New Antiheros: Creating Sympathy For The Devilish,” “In a world filled with war, recession and cynicism, straight-up heroes feel fake as a three-dollar bill. So the confused guy who does bad things for the right reasons just might be the best reflection of where we are today.” Now we are at a point where authors have rea...
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Deggans, Eric. “Television’s New Antiheros: Creating Sympathy For The Devilish.” NPR. 15 Dec. 2011. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011/12/15/143753533/televisions-new- antiheroes-creating-sympathy-for-the-devilish
Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. New York: Random House, 1959. 520. Print.
Jensen, Jeff. “The Evolution of the Antihero.” Entertainment Weekly. 6. September. 2013. Web. 11. Nov. 2013. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20734160_20729324,00.html Moore, Bo. “The Antihero’s Journey.” Wired. Jan 2013. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. http://www.bomoore.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/21.01-Antiheroes-The- Antiheros-Journey.pdf
Smith, Briony. “Antihero Worship.” Flare. August. 2013. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
http://www.flare.com/celebrity/peter-sarsgaard-talks-antihero-worship/
In most stories we enjoy, may it be from childhood or something more recent there is many times a theme that shows a clear hero and a clear villain. But ordinarily this is not the case in real life, there are few times that this is quite that simple. There are many sides to each story, and sometimes people turn a blind eye to, or ignore the opposing side’s argument. But if we look at both sides of a situation in the stories we can more clearly understand what is going on, moreover the villains in the book or play would seem more real, instead of a horrible person being evil for no reason, these two people have their own agenda may it be a ruthless vengeance or misplaced trust.
To have a good story, there must be good characters. Characters help the reader relate to the plot and struggle of the story, as well as creating a picture of the scenes on each page. But what exactly makes a character? What defines their personalities and relatableness to the reader? The way a character thinks, acts, and views the world are influenced, much like in the real world, by the people and places around them.
the traits of becoming a hero. Sometimes it would have to depend on the wisdom that the character has. It is their purpose to explain what is going on in this story to make it clear for the audience to understand. Even some stories have insights of what a person can do.
The hero is typically a strong, good-natured person by Hollywood standards, but some authors take the freedom to change this definition. Authors like Flannery O 'Connor in her short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” redefine the hero with the character, Grandma. This character is usually loved by all and well respected, but Grandma is not lovable or liked. People who read the story often have a strong dislike towards her. She is annoying. O 'Connor does not follow the hero’s journey verbatim. She strives to make the reader think about their feelings towards the characters in different ways.
Humanity has created this “universal story” of what a hero is, or at least the myth of it, time and again. Different tasks and encounters with a variety of villains all lead the hero to the prize, to a new life (Seger). This person deemed the hero is as ordinary as the next but what makes them different is the drastic test that they must face. Individuals admire this character because the hero stands for something, something bigger than themselves. Whether it be the compassionate act of Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games or the death of the oldest brother in Brother Bear, as an outsider, an individual sees the human side of these heroes and relates. Connor Lassiter from Unwind by Neal Shusterman is an ideal example of the myth due to the
A hero has to go in a journey. He has to struggle throughout the story to grow as a character. They generally triumph at the story´s conclusion. Humans tend to admire the ones that had to suffer to be in the top. We like to associate heroism with someone that surpass many
The Iliad, the Odyssey, Beowulf, and Hamlet are classical stories that are still relatable and debatable to read and discuss. Though some of the stories are intertwined or continue off one another, the character and stories are distinctive. The stories contain different hero development and progression among them. All the stories contain an idea or concept of a hero that may not necessarily have to do with gaining power or control like modern superheroes. Power and control are referred to having to be the ruler and having the ability to do what you'd like. The modern heroes selflessness of a human on duty or even volunteering, and that person’s willingness to put their own lives on the line for the lives of absolute strangers, is specifically the quality that redefines the modern hero and separates them from heroes in the past.
An anti-hero has the role of a hero thrust upon them. They do not particularly want to be brave or noble but their actions lead them to be a hero. Facing difficult decisions and doubt are also classic traits of an anti-hero. They often lack confidence in themselves, refuse to accept their fate as a hero or don't even realise their status or ability. At a certain point, anti-heroes usually transcend into either a tragic or romantic hero. Anti-heroes can be identified in many different texts, however, all of them consist of those traits.
When telling a story, it is necessary for there to be a main character which is usually a hero. They try to find themselves or fulfill a task in order to be true to who they are. While they are trying to find who they are or fulfill a task to stay true they conquer obstacles that are standing in the way for them to succeed. Some heroes succeed some fail. Odysseus from the Odyssey is a good example of a hero who fulfills his tasks in order to be true to who he is by having a quest or a mission to get back home after the Trojan war to his dear wife and family. He has obstacles trying to return and reclaim his home, Ithaca. The obstacles are, being held hostage by a Cyclops, Poseidon making the ocean difficult for Odysseus and his men, being held hostage by two goddesses, and when he arrives home he is faced with the suitors who try to take Penelope as their wife and taking everything from their home.
Readers tend to idolize protagonists of stories. Atticus Finch, Huckleberry Finn, Harry Potter – they are all characters that possess a positive tone from the author. In pieces of writing associated with fantasy, however, it would only be more suitable to call these characters, heroes. Particularly in high fantasy, the hero ventures on an aptly named “hero’s journey.” However, the hero will always discover the “call to adventure” at the beginning of the story. At that point, the protagonist realizes that he or she possesses a unique ability. In high fantasy, that ability generally involves magic. Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea serves as a prime example of this notion. The protagonist, Ged, goes on a journey to quench his thirst for better understanding of wizardry. Another example of fantasy would be L. Frank Baum’s “The Dummy that Lived,” in which a fairy’s mischievous acts lead to a chain of trouble for the victim. Both Le Guin and Baum use magic in high fantasy literature to symbolize the need for maturity in a protagonist, or the creature casting the spell, and therefore promote the importance of responsibility to those who hold great power.
Societies construct heroes that represent and embody the ideals of those who create them and read about them. Their is a stark contrast between the hero in the time of Beowulf and Hamlet’s creation and heroes created in modern times. Current literature, movies, and television portray a different kind of hero from those created in 1000 AD to 1600 AD. A hero is defined as someone who is "admired for achievements and noble qualities"," shows great courage", and in historical texts such as Beowulf and Hamlet is a "legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability" or an "illustrious warrior" (Merriam-Webster). Despite the popular belief that the time for heroes has passed away, based on the needs of society, today's heroes still exist and have evolved into something new.
Perfect heroes are unrealistic in literature because even though they seem ideal, the characters become flat and unrelatable. Therefore, authors often add other dimensions to characters that reveal their personality flaws and mistakes. Authors are able to use these dimensions to both relate to the characters but also teach the readers life lessons from the characters mistakes. For example, in The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini crafts multiple ambiguous characters who are good people that make major mistakes. By contrasting these characters to the more pure characters, Hosseini is able to show both the ideal life to live and the ways to do that.
In "The Thematic Paradigm", Robert Ray explains how there are two distinctly different heroes, the outlaw hero and the official hero. The official hero embraces common values and traditional beliefs, while the outlaw has a clear sense of right and wrong but operates above the law (Ray). Ray explains how the role of an outlaw hero has many traits. "The attractiveness of the outlaw hero's childishness and propensity to whims, tantrums, and emotional decisions derived from America's cult of childhood", states Ray. (309) Ray also says, "To the outlaw hero's inconsistence on private standards of right and wrong, the official hero offered the admonition, you cannot take the law into your own hands." (312) The values of these two traditional heroes contrasts clearly. Society favors the outlaw hero because we identify with that character more. We see ourselves more so in the outlaw hero than in the official hero. The outlaw hero has the "childlike" qualities that most of us wish we had as adults. To civilians it may seem that the outlaw hero lives more of a fantasy life that we all wish to have.
Looking in this day and age, movie heroes are taking the law into their own hands, creating the anti-hero in the long run. Defined by wikipedia, the anti-hero is a villain or an outsider, but is nevertheless portrayed somewhat sympathetically. In particular, an anti-hero may have enough heroic qualities and intentions to align them with the heroes in the readers' mind ("Anti-hero"). A film that depicts the classic vigilante is Man on Fire by Tony Scott. The film takes on the idea of revenge with a blend of disturbingly sentimental seriousness and harsh reality.
For a time, the main characters in a story, poem, or narrative were easily classified as either being a hero or a villain. A hero would be easy to identify by the traits he'd possess, such as bravery, honesty, selflessness, trustworthiness, courage, leadership, and more. The villain would be easy to identify as well, possessing traits such as maliciousness, deceitfulness, immorality, dark, wishing harm upon others, and more. But what if the character lacked the natural heroic qualities but wasn't a villain either? What if the person displayed personality flaws that would traditionally be associated with a villain, but has heroic intentions? These questions were finally answered with the emergence of the anti-hero in literature.