Antihero

Ali Shari’ati is considered to be one of the most significant ideologues of the 1979 revolution in Iran- the events that overturned the Pahlavi monarchy and ushered in the Islamic Republic. Despite his death in 1977, just months before protesters spilled onto the streets of Tehran, Shari’ati’s lectures and published writings are said to have defined the tenor of the uprising. In some of his most influential lectures, delivered during the late 1960s and early 1970s, Shari’ati attempted to fuse…

However, we must also remember that he is a ‘literary’ embodiment of the main argument made by Dostoevsky against rational egoism – as Pevear states, not only does the author present to us an antihero, but also an “antibook” (in Dostoevsky 2006, p.ix). We must also be aware of the socio-political climate of the time, and how heavily Dostoevsky had been censored in his work. The Wayne Booth model of narrator unreliability states that this unreliability…

The coercive substructure of perfection in Paradise Lost The ideal human being, or the standard for which we strive to emulate, has been conceptualized in various works of literature and classical artwork, particularly Roman sculpture. Though the attributes that provide this human the pedestal title of “ideal” may vary discriminately with culture, the idea of having a framework to which the masses could compare themselves and others is not a foreign concept. The ideal human birthed from the…

Corruption of Power in Catch 22 As an untraditional war novel, Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 portrays it’s protagonist, Yossarian, as an anti-hero in WWII, where he plays the role of an American air force bomber. Although it is a war novel, Catch 22 doesn’t focus on the aspect of the war’s combat or the protagonist’s newfound experiences in the war, but instead reflects a message about society by incorporating entities that represent societal issues that Heller wants acknowledged. Such themes in…

Beowulf & Kit Both Christopher Marlowe’s work and the epic poem Beowulf represent great literature from their own times. While Marlowe’s work made him the foremost writer of tragedy in Elizabethan England, in many ways it predates its time in the late Renaissance in categories such as religion and stage drama. On the other hand, Beowulf is an exemplary piece of epic poetry that portrays the culture of the area that is now Britain in the days of Old English. Marlowe’s plays, specifically The…

Junior the Anti-hero Imagine growing up on an Indian Reservation and feeling there is little hope for the future because of a culture of poverty and alcoholism that is a part of everyday life. This is what Junior is facing in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. He does not see much of a future for himself living on the Reservation. Junior does not come across as a lead character who is heroic because he paints himself as someone who is weak and pathetic with few…

Grenouille as Anti-Hero Patrik suskind’s choice of Grenouille's characteristics in the Perfume made him successful on creating an anti hero whom the reader wants to see succeed despite the character's negative qualities. In Patrik Sunkind’s book Perfume: the story of a murderer, the main character, Grenouille's Grenouille; the protagonist in Perfume: the story of a murderer, is a human being with a supernatural ability which is his extraordinary sense of smell. Patrik suskind insists…

The military serves to protect the people of the nation away from harm and “To free the oppressed” or “De oppresso liber” as their motto goes (Brown), but does the means of inhumane treatment oppression of the soldiers and disregard for morality justify a means to an end? In Catch-22, by Joseph Heller, a story unfolds the events of a bomber captain named John Yossarian as he tries his hardest to avoid combat and an untimely death on and off the battlefield, portrayed with dark humor and…

There is no doubt that Watchmen is a graphic novel rich with intertextuality. Not only does Watchmen make references to other superhero comics by parodying popular heroes, such as Captain America as the Comedian and Superman as Dr. Manhattan, but Watchmen is full of internal intertextuality, from the newspapers and advertisements that litter the streets of New York to the personal files, publications, and mementos of the heroes in the novel. The most significant of these documents are the…

Stories are composed of few essential elements for it to come to live. Writers focused on having a setting, a plot and of course, characters. If a story fails to have any of these elements it would have no sense whatsoever. Characters are one of the most important elements for the story to come to life. There are many type of characters in the literature world, they can be a human being, an animal or even an imaginary figure. Writer’s use characterization to make a character come to live, they…