Theme Of Heroism In The Intruder

In coming of age stories, the protagonists often experience a grave or dramatic moment in which they take a step into adulthood through a mock heroism - in this moment the reader realizes that who someone claims to be in their imagination is different from who they are in reality.

In the story, The Intruder, a boy named Kenneth represents the grave moments in coming of age stories when the protagonists realize they live covered by a mask of heroism. The story starts off with Kenneth is in his own world of imagination, where he is the hero. “Occasionally, he lifted his .22 rifle and fired at a rusty tin can across the creek, the can becoming a Nazi face in a window as he squeezed the trigger and the voice filled …show more content…
Thirteen year old Kenneth loves to visualize himself as a hero for the greater-good. When doing so, he leaves all the worries of the real world behind. In his imagination he doesn't have to wait until he's an adult to start acting like one. In his imagination he sees adulthood as an amazing period of time where he’s viewed as an idol to other people. However, Kenneth realizes that when he tries to be the character from his imagination in reality, he finds that the waters of adulthood aren't as calm as they seem. “ He aimed through the screen, found the side of the man's head, then fired,” (280). Through this quote Dubus shows that in the morbid moment when Kenneth shoots Douglas, his sister’s boyfriend, Kenneth realizes that what he has done was only something that appealed to him in his distant world. In the action of pulling the trigger Kenneth realizes that he will only forever remain a hero in a figment of his imagination as he just took the life of an innocent when he was trying to be a hero in his own reality. “ Douglas, Douglas, Douglas!” Then he knew.” When Kenneth realises what he has done, he now knows that the only way he can enter adulthood is with the emotions of succession and bravery hid behind …show more content…
In the story the narrator is love-struck by a beautiful girl named Sheila Mant. In his attempts to take her out in a date, he hooks a huge Bass on accident and cuts his line in order to keep Shelia happy. “With a sick, nauseous feeling in my stomach, I saw the rod unbend.” In this dramatic moment the narrator watches as he cuts the string connecting him to his childhood to appear as a hero to his adulthood. Watching his childhood swim out of his grasp makes him feel extremely regretful and makes him wish he had it back. Soon he is reminded that with the end of childhood comes adulthood. However the narrator is quite disappointed as growing old had only seemed appetizing in his own reality. “ There would be other Sheila Mants in my life, other fish, and though I came close once or twice, it was these secret, hidden tuggings in the night that claimed me, and I never made the same mistake again.” In this quote the narrator realizes that when he made the mistake of cutting the line, he was trying to be a hero for Sheila and just ended up disregarding what was really important. As the bass resembles his childhood wishes and Sheila resembles his cravings for adulthood the narrator made the wrong choice of cutting the line of the bass, as he was trying to show the figure of