The social
turmoil that the entire world as a community has been facing recently has
disposed us to be skeptical of almost everything. As skeptics, we are accustomed to deliberation, evaluation
of evidence, and the insistence upon extraordinary evidence in support of
extraordinary claims. These traits are not important to the political process,
which instead rewards appeals to emotion and the successful manipulation of human
passion. It is no wonder that we skeptics are uncomfortable in the political
world. It represents everything we reject in our search for understanding.
Enter the antihero. He may not really have any good or
useful characteristics, but his character is a perfect example of the struggle
that we go through in our daily lives when choosing between good and evil. One
example of the antihero in literature is Gollum in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. The good side of him
warns those who want the ring, but the dark side of him is infected by greed and
makes him do evil things to obtain the ring. This eventually leads to his
death.
If used skillfully, an antihero is much more interesting that
the more traditional hero. He is represented as an amalgamation of both good
and evil. These darker heroes can be
jerks, pathetic, hard, jaded, or mean. They can be used to represent many things
at the same time, such as, social flaws, human frailties and political culture.
Instead of having two different people represent two opposing extremes, an
antihero combines both into one person and thus presents a more accurate and
complete picture of human nature.
The character of Thomas Silverton has emerged in the first
two books of my Legacy series with all the potential to become a bona fide
antihero. He is selfish, ambitious, manipulative, prejudiced and morally
corrupt. But there is something about
him that makes us think there is some redeeming quality there somewhere down
deep inside him that will save him. We just haven’t seen it yet. It’s what gives us hope. Perhaps it will show
up in the final book of the trilogy.
Wanda DeHaven Pyle is the award-winning author of Windborne, The Stone House Legacy and The Steel Canyon Legacy. Her books are available on Amazon and Kindle at
Follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/wandadehavenpyle and Twitter at https://twitter.com/pyle_wanda
