Unlike a conventional hero, an anti-hero struggles with balancing the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations behind their actions. In Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo, Kaz Brekker struggles to create balance between his noble and greedy motives. Living in the Barrel, the entertainment district of Ketterdam, Kaz is a thief and the leader of the Dregs gang. After pulling off an impossible heist to rescue Kuwei, the son of the creator a powerful drug, his team member Inej Ghafa gets kidnapped by a powerful merchant- Jan Van Eck. Kaz, driven by both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations, hurries to save her. Kaz Brekker falls under the archetype of an anti-hero due to his mixed motivations to selflessly save Inej and selfishly avenge his brother while …show more content…
After saving Kuwei and Inej's kidnapping, Kaz creates a plan to rescue her. Even though “the practical thing would be for Kaz to auction Kuwei to the highest bidder and forget about Inej entirely”, he still chooses to save her, just because he wants to (Bardugo 41). It is not beneficial or practical for Brekker to save Inej as it puts his entire team at risk of Van Eck and complicate the plan, but Kaz does not care. He wants to save Inej because it is the right thing to do. Kaz not only complicates the team’s plans to save Inej when she was kidnapped, but also when they are destroying Van Eck’s reputation. In this plan, Inej must scale up a silo twenty stories high and walk across a high wire to the other silos to ruin Van Eck’s sugar. Kaz plans for Inej to have a net to protect her all though he knows she does not need it. Having a net to protect Inej “would complicate the assault he’d planned … and leave them twice as open to exposure”, yet Kaz insists on it (173). Inej is famed in the Barrel for her stealth, agility, and being able to climb up anything and get anywhere, all without having any safety measures. It is her job and something she is very skilled at. Kaz knows this and he still insists on the net to protect Inej, even when it will complicate the operation. This is due to his intrinsic need to protect Inej at all times. He can not “bear to watch [her] fall” (173). Kaz …show more content…
When Kaz chooses to save Inej, he does it to “‘protect [his] investments’” (Bardugo 173). Even though Kaz wants to save Inej because of his love for her, he also wants to because he invested in her. Kaz bought and freed Inej from a brothel and allowed her to join his crew. He realizes that if Inej gets hurt, he would suffer a big loss. Brekker would not only lose a valuable team member, but the money he put into Inej would also go to waste. Kaz protects Inej because she is an investment and also because she is an “asset” (151). ). Inej is known and renowned around the Barrel for her stealth and agility and is a spy for Kaz. She learns and tells Kaz the secrets of everyone in Ketterdam. To protect her legs from getting shattered by Van Eck, Inej argues that “‘[Kaz will] never trade if you break me! … I’ll be no use to him anymore!’” (63). Brekker only cares about saving Inej because she is useful to him. She is his spy and source of inside information. As soon as she can not perform her job anymore, he will leave her. Kaz’s both selfless and selfish motivations for saving Inej prove that he is an
While reading the “Thug” novels, you may either know the characters, or you may be a character, or you want to know the characters.
Ethan Canin’s “The Palace Thief” is a short story about a teacher who overestimates his importance in the life of his students and in the world, but eventually realizes this through a series of life changing events. The narrator, Mr. Hundert, is an egocentric individual who seems to always have the best interest of his students in mind, when in reality most of his decisions are made to further his career and better his reputation. In “The Palace Thief,” Ethan Canin explores how a person’s ego can affect their decisions and relationships with other people.
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
Looking at the title, King of the World, with its photograph of Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr./Muhammad Ali, I assumed it was a biography. It isn't. Jumping to my next conclusion I thought it was a book about the "sweet science;" it isn't. Okay, maybe it's a tell-all about the seamy side of the boxing 'business.' It's not.
Bravery can be showed by having strength, being willing to sacrifice, and standing up for yourself and others. Life will not be very fun if you do not try to make it fun. One has to be brave to make life fun. If one is not strong it would make it hard to be brave. If Holling was not strong then he would not have been able to play Ariel in the Shakespeare play. All of his friends showed up when he was was wearing yellow tights and feathers on his butt. He stayed strong and finished the play. “Still ringing in the hands of Danny Humfer, Meryl Lee and Mai Ti who were standing in the very front row.” (Schmidt 86) That moment was when Holling first saw all of his classmates watching him in the play. At first he only saw Danny’s parents, but then
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.
In all of Sherman Alexie’s work, there are many recurring symbols. These symbols represent ideas that Alexie thinks are important to Native American life on a reservation. One of these symbols is basketball. Alexie uses basketball as a substitute for war. In Native American culture, war is a way to win glory and respect.
If you have children in tow, and are looking for a family-fun, delightful movie to watch, “Song of the South” is worth a viewing. Or perhaps you are a fan of the Uncle Remus tales you have read when you were little, then “Song of the South” will certainly give some justice to those fun tales.
Heroes play a critical role in society. Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth explores the archetype of a hero as well as its necessities to society. In a hero’s journey, the hero will always return changed after being away for a long time. The archetypal hero in Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, a work of science fiction, is Ender Wiggin. Shakespeare, Lord of the Rings, by Tolkien, and Beowulf, mirrors the traits that Ender portrays in Macbeth. By displaying acts of selfishness, extreme violence, and being egotistical, a hero, no matter and previous act, society no longer considers the a hero, a hero. Through the societal damage resulting from these acts, heroes show their true worth to society.
He’s insecure about his position because he is afraid that his daughter would bewitch which
Hero is a word that is commonplace in our society. We seem to always be able to turn on the latest news story and find the newest local man who saved that beautiful kitten from that building that was burning down. When we say hero a vast array of different definitions come to people’s minds. Our definition of hero in our world is most definitely not a constant. In the Epic of Gilgamesh and the novel Monkey many would consider the main characters and their strongest companions nothing close to heroes but rather tyrants. I have to say that these people have defined hero too narrowly, and I must prove them of their folly. Monkey and Gilgamesh, despite the many sins they commit, highlight what it truly means to be a hero, reminding us to always aspire to greatness.
The characters in the novel, including the operative himself are willing to lie, cheat, and kill in cold blood for their own personal gain. Although infidelity, greed, and self-preservation are expected from characters involved with the murders and inner crime ring; the story becomes more complicated when characters like the operative, and chief of police begin to get their hands dirty. Bringing the age-old crime ad punishment theme to a higher tier where the reader is unable to make an impulsive decision on who is a “bad guy”, and who is a “good
Many would agree that although there are many stories about heroes, they all seem similar in some way. Joseph Campbell wrote many books about this theory of a "hero cycle" that every hero story follows. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, this pattern is clearly exemplified and it shows the numerous steps in Joseph Campbell's idea of the hero cycle.
There is another type of hero that almost no one is aware of. In the poorest areas of the country, live mostly minorities and other ethic background. All their lives they’ve been expected to work harder and expected not succeed in life. Some individuals living in poverty with a determination to succeed work hard all of their lives to become what everybody doubted they could. Escaping the crime, drugs, and prostitution is enough to escape hell, even if they don’t go to college. Despite of their financial problems, drug and crime surroundings, or difficulties in the language skills, their desire to triumph fuels their persistence. Those who make it to success are the few living examples of the purest form of hero anyone can be. They are not only their own heroes but also the heroes of the poor children who dream of becoming like them someday.
The anti-hero is useless at being a hero when they should be one or have the opportunity to be one. Typically an ordinary, timid, selfish, anti-social, inept, cautious, passive, pessimistic person, they still manage to gain the sympathy of the reader. Usually unglamorous, many wallow in self-pity which only worsens their state of mind. Anti-heros rarely succeed at any goal set before them. Summed up in two words - failed heros. T. S. Elliot's “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a fantastic example of the modern anti-hero. A glimpse into the stream of consciousness of Prufrock reveals his secret struggles to handle a world he has no control over. Prufrock displays numerous characteristics of an anti-hero but three stand out the most: cowardice, passiveness, and pessimism.