The novel Legend by Mari Lu stands out from others. Mari Lu uses a protagonist and antagonist to add a conflict in her novel. Doing this shows that “narratives contain a primary protagonist, who is the focus of the narration. In contrast, antagonists are usually portrayed in a negative fashion, and thus, viewers may feel a sense of counter empathy toward them”(Magliano 1). The antagonist should be at least the equal in strength of the protagonist, and preferably stronger. In the novel Legend, Day is the protagonist and the Republic is the antagonist.
The protagonist in a novel is portrayed as a hero. In the novel Legend, at the age of fifteen, Day had become a legendary criminal, but is a hero to his family. Day isn’t actually a criminal even though
…show more content…
The Republic is the force opposing the protagonist, Day, and forcing him to keep coming up with new ways to overcome the problems that lie between him and the ultimate conquest of his goal to take care of his family. The republic is against Day. They attack Day’s family because Day’s brother has the plague. Day hates the Republic. The republic creates Day to be a criminal and by him being a protagonist, he tries to save his brother from the plague. Day steals from the Republic. The republic is a harsh society. After someone takes the Trial, their whole life could be over or the opposite. A “perfect score-1500 points” can give someone “lots of money and power” (Lu 7). But if you fail, the government gets full custody of that person now. The republic creates conflict with everyone in the government, making them an antagonist.
The life of any story isn’t the plot. It’s how the protagonist and antagonist operate within the plot. This is proven by how “the protagonist is the character who has compelling positive goals in the narrative and the antagonist is the character whose compellingly negative goals directly conflicted with those of the protagonist”(Magliano