Obsessive Need To Look Like The Hero In March By Geraldine Brooks

From a young age, children are told that the good guys are the ones wearing the superhero suit: they help those in need while maintaining a good reputation among others. But, most heroes are only known by their “stage name”, like Superman, and Clark Kent doesn’t get the everyday recognition of the people around him, like his alter ego does. If people learn that Clark Kent and Superman are the same, they will view him in a better light. But when an everyday person sees themselves as a superhero, their ego can grow unreasonably high. Geraldine Brooks, in her novel March, shows that an obsessive need to look like the hero is just a ruse for an inflated ego. The way March executes his beliefs and how he molds others views of him then prevent him

He shared how he felt his “life more complete” during this process of teaching her, but how “the secret schoolroom” most inspired him (33). March teaches Prudence to read in a selfish way. Of course, it’s good to teach a child to read, especially one who had no other way to do so. But the way he does it, in a self-helping secretive way, just makes him look like a fool. He would’ve been more careful if he actually cared about helping Prudence learn how to read. He believed he could help her, but did it in such a poor way that they got caught and the child was punished (along with others). March made himself seem like the hero, but was actually the villain because he put his own personal motives above the safety of the girl. March not only put the well being of someone he just met in danger, but ended up putting his family in danger later on. March and his wife, Marmee, meet the abolitionist John Brown and learn of his efforts. As John Brown continues to tell them about his view, March sees how Marmee is reacting and decides to put his family’s money into Brown’s cause. March basically empties his bank account into John’s cause and realizes that if he

If he can make others think he's a hero, he can become one. March’s need to mold others’ views of him to his liking demonstrates his self absorbance. As March goes through the war, he writes home to his family and his wife, but instead of telling the truth, March whitewashes his letters to Marmee about the war. He tells about trivial things, like his spilled ink and that a friend showed him a “serviceable substitute made of the season’s last blackberries” (3). March writes about the good things in order to rationalize his lying to Marmee. Instead of writing about the truth of the war, he writes about the blackberry ink rather than the bodies he’s buried. Some could argue that it shows that March was looking out for Marmee and trying to shield her from it, but one shouldn’t have to shield the ones they love from the truth of life. Marmee, as she loves March, should be able to know these things, but March’s ego prevents him from tarnishing the reputation he believes he’s built. This idea of not wanting to tarnish his ego is then repeated as March learns that he was discharged because people thought he was having an affair, so he doesn’t go home to his family. After learning March was discharged for his “affair”, he tries to convince himself that a “greater punishment” would be if his family was touched by “whispers of [his] momentary weakness” (73). March is more worried about his reputation rather