James Patterson Character Analysis

In James Patterson’s book he uses the characters, Brother Solomon, Dinah, and Cyrus to show the hopelessness in life and how their lives are meaningless. These three characters are stuck trying to complete the Sisyphean task of trying to find meaning in life and escape the life that they are living. The final portion of The Children of Sisyphus functions as a pivotal moment where each character either continue with their task or finds an escape from the hopelessness. Dinah and Brother Solomon find and escape from the absurdity of their lives through death, but Cyrus is the only one who continues to push the rock because he is blinded by the absurdity of his life.
Patterson uses Brother Solomon as a tool to show readers that for those living in the Dungle ignorance is bliss. Solomon throughout the novel has come close to transcending but once he is on the cusp of it he is …show more content…
Out of the three characters Cyrus is the only one who continues to push his metaphorical rock up the hill. The Rastafarians believe that they Holy Emperor will be coming for them to take them far away from the wickedness of Babylon since they have paid for the sins of their fathers. It is dramatic irony that the ship will not be coming for the people of the Dungle and that they will be forced to continue their Sisyphean task of paying for their fathers’ sins. Camus’ theory that Sisyphus is happy pushing the rock up the hill with the hope that one day it will not roll down the other side. As readers one can see that there is no hope for Cyrus, he is stuck waiting for something that will never happen. Cyrus’s hopelessness can also be found in Dinah; to him she is his paradise. “She is de Black,” to Rastafarians black means good, and to him Dinah is paradise. But much like the promise of the Holy Emperor coming to take them to paradise, Dinah is ripped away form Cyrus first by Babylon and then by her