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Heroes Vs Villains

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Heroes vs. Villains A wise physicist by the name of Isaac Newton once had a theory. His theory was that each force has a counterforce, which he described in his book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687). His theory does not only apply to physics but also in the world of literature. For instance, a hero has its counterpart in a villain. This essay will therefore determine and compare who the heroes and villains are in three different texts to analyse how these counterparts are portrayed in various ways. The literary works that are going to be examined in this paper are Winter of the world written by Ken Follet (2012), The diary of a young girl written by Anne Frank (1947) and The ones who walk away from Omelas written by Ursula …show more content…

LeGuin (1973) describes a utopian society. The happiness of this society depends on the misery of a child who lives in isolation and some of the residents decide to leave Omelas upon seeing the child. In this literary work, it is hard to designate one specific hero or protagonist. LeGuin could, on the one hand, portray the people who walk away from Omelas as heroes because they can not stand the fact that their happiness is depending on one individual’s suffering. The author describes the ones who walk away as” They keep walking, And walk straight out of the city of Omelas. Each one goes alone, youth or girl, man or women” (LeGuin, 1793:4). This quote could be a possible evidence that the ones who walk away are the heroes. On the other hand, they could also be portrayed as the villains because they leave the child behind. Another possible hero in the text is the child in the cellar who suffers for others well-being. It is up to each reader to decide who is considered the hero, and the same goes for the antagonist. However, the most noticeable antagonists are all the citizens of Omelas who accept that their happiness depends on the child’s misery. In the text, the author points its finger at the people who stay. This point is proven by the quote: “ [...] but they all understand that their happiness, the tenderness of their friendship [...] depend wholly on this child’s abominable misery” (LeGuin, 1973:4 ). Nevertheless, there could also be no central, driving conflict with a hero and villain, it is as up to the reader to decide this. The fact that the text does not have a clear hero or protagonist makes it hard to decide the outcome of the ongoing conflict. However, the most probable protagonists are the ones who walk away and the ones who stay the antagonists. The winning side will be decided through how many will leave and how many will stay in the city. As a result of this, it is not possible to

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