Writing Help 129 | - ☆ Freelance Writer
Apr 06, 2013 | #1
Terms You Need for Writing about the Novel
If you ask 100 people on the street what a hero is, unless you happen to come across an individual or two who speak and understand no English, you will receive 100 responses, most of them very similar. After all, the idea of heroism is enshrined in our culture, and all of us have heroes we have venerated and respected throughout our lives. Children will often cite superheroes when questioned in this manner, and why wouldn't they?
Superman, Spiderman and the like are all larger-than-life figures who use their powers and risk their lives to save others from certain death. Others, older and more experienced, would cite political leaders like President Kennedy, or Martin Luther King, for their courage in the face of opposition, and their bravery and determination to create positive change for all. Still others would focus on the men and women of the police force, fire department, and the military who on a daily basis risk their lives in the line of duty. Ask these same 100 people what an antihero is, however, and you are likely to get far fewer answers, and those you do receive are very likely to be so different from one another that they do not even seem to be connected to the same term.
The reason for this is relatively simple; hero is a term popular is daily life, while antihero is restricted almost exclusively to literary usage. Hero also has literary value, and it is often interchangeable with the term protagonist, but its literary use is so similar to its popular use that the transfer from one area to the other is seamless. Antihero, on the other hand, is not even translatable based on its etymology. Anti usually means against, or opposed to, which would make the term antihero a synonym with villain or antagonist. Fortunately, since these words cover this meaning well already, antihero does not actually mean this at all. Many scholars have complained about the vexed nature of the term, some going as far as to call it a complete misnomer, and while this is valid criticism, we are nonetheless left with this term as the only one which fills the necessary slot.
An antihero is a character who, while being the protagonist of a novel (or other narrative work), does not exhibit the full range of what we would consider to be stereotypically heroic characteristics. We normally think of a hero as someone who uses his or her abilities to perform great deeds that serve others, or the greater good in general. These heroes are brave, persistent, powerful, and self-sacrificing. Most of all, heroes are moral, and their actions should be unambiguously good: superman is a prime (if exaggerated) example. Antiheroes, on the contrary, lack some (or even most) of these important qualities, and depending upon which they are lacking, turn out to be unremarkable, dull people, or individuals who use their substantial faculties in immoral ways to achieve outcomes which are often only incidentally of benefit to others, and not necessarily "good."
An example of this first type would be Leopold Bloom from James Joyce's novel Ulysses, who is a generally good but largely unremarkable character with no special powers and no penchant for adventure nor for saving others. He is an antihero in the sense that he occupies the place a hero would in a traditional narrative, but possesses no heroic qualities. An example of the second type of antihero would be The Punisher of comic book (or, if you prefer, graphic novel) fame. He is a man who possesses great strength, ingenuity, and a shrewd intelligence, but it is focused in a moral direction which could not properly be called good, at least not in the same sense as Superman. His life's work is not to sacrifice himself to prevent harm being done to others, but rather to get revenge on those who have done wrong through any means necessary. Vigilante justice is his MO, which flies in the face of conventional morality, and so The Punisher, while certainly not an unremarkable character like Bloom, is an antihero because of his immoral behaviors, even if they are directed toward (arguably) moral ends.
Antihero
If you ask 100 people on the street what a hero is, unless you happen to come across an individual or two who speak and understand no English, you will receive 100 responses, most of them very similar. After all, the idea of heroism is enshrined in our culture, and all of us have heroes we have venerated and respected throughout our lives. Children will often cite superheroes when questioned in this manner, and why wouldn't they?
Superman, Spiderman and the like are all larger-than-life figures who use their powers and risk their lives to save others from certain death. Others, older and more experienced, would cite political leaders like President Kennedy, or Martin Luther King, for their courage in the face of opposition, and their bravery and determination to create positive change for all. Still others would focus on the men and women of the police force, fire department, and the military who on a daily basis risk their lives in the line of duty. Ask these same 100 people what an antihero is, however, and you are likely to get far fewer answers, and those you do receive are very likely to be so different from one another that they do not even seem to be connected to the same term.The reason for this is relatively simple; hero is a term popular is daily life, while antihero is restricted almost exclusively to literary usage. Hero also has literary value, and it is often interchangeable with the term protagonist, but its literary use is so similar to its popular use that the transfer from one area to the other is seamless. Antihero, on the other hand, is not even translatable based on its etymology. Anti usually means against, or opposed to, which would make the term antihero a synonym with villain or antagonist. Fortunately, since these words cover this meaning well already, antihero does not actually mean this at all. Many scholars have complained about the vexed nature of the term, some going as far as to call it a complete misnomer, and while this is valid criticism, we are nonetheless left with this term as the only one which fills the necessary slot.
An antihero is a character who, while being the protagonist of a novel (or other narrative work), does not exhibit the full range of what we would consider to be stereotypically heroic characteristics. We normally think of a hero as someone who uses his or her abilities to perform great deeds that serve others, or the greater good in general. These heroes are brave, persistent, powerful, and self-sacrificing. Most of all, heroes are moral, and their actions should be unambiguously good: superman is a prime (if exaggerated) example. Antiheroes, on the contrary, lack some (or even most) of these important qualities, and depending upon which they are lacking, turn out to be unremarkable, dull people, or individuals who use their substantial faculties in immoral ways to achieve outcomes which are often only incidentally of benefit to others, and not necessarily "good."
An example of this first type would be Leopold Bloom from James Joyce's novel Ulysses, who is a generally good but largely unremarkable character with no special powers and no penchant for adventure nor for saving others. He is an antihero in the sense that he occupies the place a hero would in a traditional narrative, but possesses no heroic qualities. An example of the second type of antihero would be The Punisher of comic book (or, if you prefer, graphic novel) fame. He is a man who possesses great strength, ingenuity, and a shrewd intelligence, but it is focused in a moral direction which could not properly be called good, at least not in the same sense as Superman. His life's work is not to sacrifice himself to prevent harm being done to others, but rather to get revenge on those who have done wrong through any means necessary. Vigilante justice is his MO, which flies in the face of conventional morality, and so The Punisher, while certainly not an unremarkable character like Bloom, is an antihero because of his immoral behaviors, even if they are directed toward (arguably) moral ends.