Holding Out For a Hero Every superhero story tells the tale of an ordinary person who acquires superhuman abilities and stops the villain, but with great power comes great responsibility. The novel Motherless Brooklyn,by Jonathan Lethem, and the image of Hercules by Boris Vallejo both convey a sense of responsibility. Lethem does so through Lionel’s tourettic tics of past memories and the Hercules image displays a sense of irony that not even the strongest hero, Hercules, can have the responsibility of holding the world. Lionel’s Tourette's syndrome, on the surface, seems like it’s holding him back. However it pushes him to think beyond what others are thinking. Lethem italicized Lionel’s ticing to emphasize how his tourette's syndrome is …show more content…
Hercules literally has the weight of the world on his shoulders in the image, but Lionel figuratively feels this way because he feels responsible for Minna’s death. Hercules was tricked into holding the earth by Atlas which is similar to Lionel who was tricked by Minna, Julia and Tony. This shows how not all heroes are perfect, like Lionel. Lionel who is not seen as a hero because of his Tourette’s, but he desires to be one. If he can prove himself as a hero then he will find a way to stand out for other reasons rather than his Tourette’s. The way Lionel feels after ticing is similar to the reassurance in knowing he has discovered something significant, “I couldn’t say what got me there first, his profile in front of me or the joke’s subliminal nagging.” (Lethem 200) The joke’s “nagging” is a symbol for the tics he feels with his tourettes, which can almost be seen as his “superpower.” Lionel’s Tourette’s which most of the other characters see as a limitation actually made him more capable in following Minna’s murder than the others. Hercules has to trick Atlas back into holding the world, because he cannot handle the responsibility. This gives Hercules a sense of relief which Lionel feels from his tics which also aid him to decover the mystery of Minna’s