Who is an unlikely hero

Skills-Based Literary Analysis Rubric. Skill Development. Scene Rewrite for the Hero's Quest. Socratic Seminar. American Literature , discussion.

Skills-Based Socratic Seminar Rubric. Exploring the Theme See 5 items Hide 5 items. Background Information on the Quest. Open Resource. Content Development. Unpacking Symbols. Teaching MLA Citations. MLA , Work Cited. Text Suggestions for Unit 2. Developing Skills See 6 items Hide 6 items.

His power comes from his white gold wedding band, "wild magic which preserves [his] life" His travels lead him through many an adventure and yet he provides us with no evidence of his heroism except for the supposed wild magic he possesses. Covenant transforms himself into a criminal when he rapes Lena, a girl who has guided him and taught him the ways of the world:. A moment later he dropped the burden of his weight on her chest and her loins were stabbed with a wild, white fire that broke her silence, made her scream.

But even as she cried out she knew that it was too late for her. Something that her people thought of as a gift had been torn from her. A criminal has no right to have a reputation associated with the traditional hero, who protects those below him, and yet Covenant takes on the heroic role in Lord Foul's Bane although he has physically brutalized one who aided him in his quest.

The land seduces Covenant. One of such little resistance cannot be compared to knights. Covenant provides no reason for the Council of Lords to trust him, and they do not until he exposes the white gold automatically providing him with the title of "ur-Lord Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever and white gold wielder" That he saves the world makes Covenant a champion, an unconventional hero to say the least, but this unlikely savior, this leper and criminal, protects those below him.

This, as in Frodo's case outcasts him from the world, directly sending him home, where children hide from him and people step out of his way on the street.

Like Donaldson's protagonist, Anodos presents himself repeatedly as a hopeless and selfish man, the perfect contrast to the model of the traditional hero MacDonald also presents. Time after time Anodos becomes "unable to restrain himself ", consistently landing himself in difficulty that he alone can not fix MacDonald If he had heeded the "warning [he] had received from those who knew [his] danger," the problems would not have arisen This lack of self control associates Anodos with Thomas Covenant and Frodo in that their desires affect their actions so dramatically that these can alter the course of history.

The turning point in Phantastes occurs when Anodos admits that somebody may be better for the white lady than himself. After that moment, we meet the knight who has stolen her love and "a dim shadow of [Anodos]" could be seen "in the shining steel" His life seems ambiguous, however. Even the knight discerns unexpected nobleness in him.

Anodos demonstrates no moral or mental growth until the point at which he he decides to follow the path and become a knight. This knighthood leads to another pitfall where he "counted [himself] amongst the glorious knights of old" His hubris leads to a point in which he "had no right to wear the golden spurs" and becomes the squire of the model for our traditional hero His service and death turn Anodos into a heroic character, though his pitfalls along the way make him an unlikely candidate for the position.

Anodos' development as a character throughout Phantastes transports him from hopeless to heroic in which he "set out to find [his] ideal, came back rejoicing that [he] had lost [his] shadow" The path Anodos takes to heroism, through greed, lust, and temptation appoint him to the title of unusual hero.

Sam Gamgee, of all the characters represents one of the most traditionally heroic fronts his physical attributes not withstanding. The selfless love with which he attends to Frodo giving him anything he needs and taking little for himself makes his heroism traditional. The loyalty he shows toward the journey and his master can be overthrown by no one:. They said to me.

Leave him! I said. I never mean to. I am going with him, if he climbs to the Moon, and if any of those Black Riders try to stop him, they'll have Sam Gamgee to reckon with, I said.

They laughed. Sam shows unfaltering love, bravery, loyalty and his purely selfless nature. He even offers to share the burden of the ring with his master: "If it's too hard a job, I could share it with you, maybe?

If his size were not a factor, his nature would make Sam a traditional hero. Given his childlike stature and hobbit sized strength, he no longer fulfills the requirements of the traditional hero. His role must be of an unlikely hero. Dragonsong presents Pern, a society much more restrictive than those in previous novels, and its social structure fulfills the requirements of a medieval hierarchy. Each person has a specific role to fulfill, though unlike in other tales, professions do not reflect the abilities of the individual.

In contrast to Pern, Benden Weyr respects abilities of individuals and promotes their personal accomplishments. The dragonriders protect the world and land of Pern from the Thread, fulfilling the role of knights protecting those below them and allowing Dragonsong to become a medievally-structured fantasy.

In the society Menolly lives in, heroism does not fit her assigned role. Menolly, the protagonist of Dragonsong , possesses amazing musical abilities, and yet she is not allowed to partake in her craft because she "was only a girl: too tall and lanky to be a proper girl at that" McCaffrey 1.

Only when the Hold's Harper passes away does Menolly's role include playing music:. Her thoughts kept returning to the sin of having strummed a few bars of her own song. That, and being a girl and the only one who could teach or play in the absence of a real Harper. No one wanted the Harper to know that the youngsters had been schooled by a girl. She does not follow traditional gender roles in this society, and so she assumes the role of Harper without holding the official title. Menolly acknowledges her abilities but questions herself because "she was a girl and there were mysteries that only the male mind could understand" To further Menolly's problems, when performing her assigned household duties she "gash[ed] her left palm wide open" leaving her with use enough of her hand for "all practical purposes" 43, This injury, however, discouraged Menolly from playing music.

When she acts according to her assigned gender role, she, "a mere girl" interacts with fire lizards whose eggs she has the privilege of handling She risks her life to save them, an act of selfless bravery that can only be attributed to the traditional hero, her strength surprising for a "one-handed girl" When she reaches Benden Weyr, she receives respect for her abilities as a musician and can perform once more.

She moves to Harper Hall. Her accomplishments make her a hero, her sex and disability make her unlikely in this role. Eowyn, being the only other girl presented as a hero, defeats that which no mortal man can kill in The Lord of the Rings : "no living man am I!

You look upon a woman. Eowyn I am, Eomund's daughter. Matilda is a fantastic character: a little girl who is repeatedly patronised and under-estimated, but outwits everyone to get what she wants. And the root of her power is reading! I find that hugely satisfying. In a world full of wizards and warriors and magical elves… it's the smallest, least conventionally heroic characters who save the day. I devoured Tolkien's epic when I was It had a massive impact on me, increased by Peter Jackson's wonderful films.

I cry every time at that scene at the end, where the newly-crowned King Aragorn bows down to the hobbits — and every single hero of Middle Earth follows suit. All my stories have a strand of superhero mythology in their DNA, because I've always loved comics as well as books.

I think they taught me visual as well as verbal literacy — and, of course, unlikely heroism. Spiderman was my favourite, because Peter Parker was so useless in real life. He could never even claim the rewards of his heroism, because he had to keep his identity secret!

I relished that irony as a teenager, and still do. I discovered the Earthsea books at university, where my friends and I decided children's literature was far more interesting than grown-up literary fiction. That was when I got serious about writing children's books, and Le Guin was an inspiration, because she showed what they could do. Ged is a very unlikely hero.

In the first book, he's an outsider who gets everything wrong, and pays a terrible price. By the third, he's become the quietest, most unglamorous hero imaginable; someone who does almost nothing, except the one thing that's absolutely necessary to save the world. The first two books that I wrote were rejected by every publisher in the land. I got rejections telling me there was no market for children's fantasy.

This was before Harry Potter. Then I came across the first book of Philip Pullman's trilogy, and knew the world was about to change. It was exactly the kind of thing I wanted to write: a hugely ambitious epic myth, with an irresistible central character.

Lyra Silvertongue's heroism comes from making up stories.